
\ 



(toss "E. "cLOe. 
Book. 



-L'a 1 



tt& 



Zi/ sT^ 




I 



SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY. SIX, 



WAR OF INDEPENDENCE; 



A HISTORY OF THE 



ANGLO-AMERICANS 



FROM THE PERIOD OF THE UNION OF THE COLONIES AGAINST THE 

FRENCH, TO THE INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON, THE 

FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF 

AMERICA. 



ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS 

OF PLANS OF BATTLES, PROMINENT EVENTS, INTERESTING LOCALITIES, AND PORTRAITS OF 
DISTINGUISHED MEN OE THE PERIOD. 



BY BENSON J. LOSSING. 



NEW EDITION. 



NEW YORK : 
EDWARD WALKER, 114 FULTON STREET 

16-50. 



x>v\ 




THE YOUTH OF MY COUNTRY, 

UPON WHOM WILL SOON DEVOLVE 

THE FAITHFUL GUARDIANSHIP 

or our 

GOODLY HERITAGE, 

THIS VOLUME 

IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED, 

ST 

THE AUTHOR. 



PUBLISHER'S NOTICE. 



In suggesting this truly American Book to my author, my chief motive was to 
present to the youth of this wide-spreading Republic a faithful record of the events 
which were instrumental in the accomplishment of its independence, and in the 
implanting of the basis of its present prosperity and happiness. To all mankind, 
its history is a lesson of Political Wisdom, and may be perused with profit ; but to 
the American citizen, a perfect knowledge of the Patriotic Story is an essential 
ingredient of his stock of general knowledge. Other republics have sprung into 
existence by the fiat of the popular Will, but, alas ! how vastly different, as a 
general rule, were the motives which gave birth to that Will, and the principles 
which guided it, from those which laid the foundation of our Republic. Hatred to 
the patrician classes rather than a sincere desire for political equality, was the 
prime mover of Robespierre and other bloody actors in the French Revolution ; 
and infidelity, cruelty, and bloodshed, were the ministers of the popular will. 
Not so with us. Deliberate oppression awoke a cry of remonstrance, and called 
into action principles as pure as their Author, whose steady light guided both 
Statesmen and Warriors on their road to Independence, and the establishment of our 
Republic upon the firm basis of Truth, Justice, and Equality. The world venerates 
the heroes of that strife, and the voice of Despotism durst not calumniate their 
memory, so sacredly is it enshrined in the heart of every aspirant for Freedom ; 
and when the names of long lines of kings shall fade away in the light of just appre- 
ciation, that of Washington and his compatriots will shine with superior lustre — 
for their characters were precious gifts from Heaven to man. Such is the theme 
and such the characters for contemplation, herewith presented to the Youth of our 
country, as incentives to patriotic action, and as ensamples for imitation. 

Faithfully should the story of the Revolution be written ; faithfully should the 
artist's pencil portray its scenes ; and liberality should characterize the dissemina- 
tion of those labors. Having experienced the skill of Mr. Lossing (of the firm of 
Lossing & Barritt, engravers) in the illustration of " Dowling's History of Roman- 
ism," and other works, and having full confidence in his ability as a writer, I have 
intrusted to him both the authorship of this volume and its pictorial embellishment. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

I. Frontispiece— Signers of the Declaration of Independence. 
II. Ornamental Title-page. 

III. Vignette for Preface, - - - - vii 

IV. Vignette for Introduction, - - - . . . :_ 
V. Initial Letter, -------.. - i» 

VI. Group of Portraits— George III.— Pitt— Washington, - - - 25 

VII. Initial Letter, - - 25 

VIII. Plan of the Siege of Quebec, 1759, 44 

IX. " Battle of Bunker Hill, 44 

X. " Seat of War in New Jersey, 44 

XI. " Battle of Long Island, ------ 44 

XII. Death of Wolfe, 46 

XIII. Portrait of Wolfe, 50 

XIV. Group of Portraits — Franklin — Grenville — Henry, - - - 51 
XV. Initial Letter, -----51 

XVI. Patrick Henry before the Virginia Assembly, - - . - 62 

XVII. Parade of the Stamp Act in New York, ... 70 
XVIII. Faneuil Hall, Boston, S7 

XIX. Group of Portraits— Samuel Adams— Barre— North, - - -89 
XX. Initial Letter, gg 

XXI. Destruction of Tea in Boston Harbor, - - - . . -108 
XXII. Group of Portraits — Hancock — Burke — Conway, - - . - 113 

XXIII. Initial Letter, 113 

XXIV. Carpenters' Hall, 14 ^ 

XXV. Group of Portraits— Montgomery— Putnam— Warren, - - - 143 

XXVI. Initial Letter, 143 

XXVII. Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga, 2,-q 

XXVIII. Washington receiving his commission, ----._ 164 

XXIX. Battle of Bunker Hill, 170 

XXX. Continental Paper Money, -----... 103 

XXXI. Group of Portraits— Lee— Cornwallis— Clinton, - 185 

XXXII. Initial Letter, --'----..__ i«3 

XXXIII. Portraits of the committee who drafted the Declaration of Inde- 

pendence, - - - - - . . . . -196 

XXXIV. Washington crossing the Delaware, ------ 212 

XXXV. The " Billop House," 217 

XXXVI. Group of Portraits— Schuyler— Burgoyne— Gates, - - - - 219 

XXXVII. Initial Letter, 219 

XXXVIII. Encampment at Valley Forge, - ..... 230 



vni LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PiOK 

XXXIX. Plan of the Battles of Stillwater and Saratoga, .... 238 

XL. " Battle of Brandywine, 238 

XLI. " Siege of Savannah, 238 

XLII. " Battle of Monmouth, 238 

XLIII. Surrender of Burgoyne, ........ 240 

XLIV. Washington's Head-quarters at Morristown, ... - 250 

XLV. Group of Portraits — La Fayette — Steuben — Jones, ... 252 

XLVI. Initial Letter, 252 

XL VII. Plan of the Camp at Valley Forge, ... ... 254 

XLVIII. » Battle of White Plains, 254 

XLIX. " Seat of War in South Carolina, 254 

L. " Battle of Germantown, - - ' - - - - 254 

LI. Signing of the Treaty of Alliance at Paris, 270 

LII. Continental Metal-Money, — first coined, 277 

LIII. Group of Portraits — Lincoln — Deane — Wayne, .... 279 

LIV. Initial Letter, 279 

LV. Capture of the Serapis, 296 

LVI. Ruins of Ticonderoga, - -------- 301 

LVII. Group of Portraits — Greene — Andre — Arnold, .... 303 

LVIII. Initial Letter, 303 

LXIX. The " Beverly Robinson House," 316 

LX. Capture of Andre, 320 

LXI. Washington's Head-quarters at Tappan, ..... 326 

LXII. Group of Portraits — Jay — Morgan — Sumter, 327 

LXIII. Initial Letter, 327 

LXIV. Plan of the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill, 334 

LXV. " Guilford Court-House, 334 

LXVI. " Operations on the Hudson, 17S0, - - - - 334 

LXVII. " Siege of Yorktown, 334 

LXVIII. British Officer dining with Marion, 336 

LXIX. Surrender of Cornwallis, 344 

LXX. Moore's House at Yorktown, 349 

LXXI. Group of Portraits— Laurens— Mifflin— Shelburne, - - - 351 

LXXII. Initial Letter, 351 

LXXIII. Washington's Head-quarters at Newburgh, 359 

I. XXIV. Group of Portraits — Washington — Hamilton — Knox, - - - 361 

LXXV. Initial Letter, 361 

LXXVI. Inauguration of Washington, 365 

LXXVII. Seals of the original thirteen States, 36s 

LXXVIII. Fac Simile of the Signatures of the Signers of the Decla- 
ration of Independence, ----- 432, 433, 434 








VQ*T4*- 



We have felt a great degree of hesitation in bringing the following pages to the 
bar of public opinion, because of the able manner in which the same subject has 
long since been presented to the world by American and European writers. We 
feel conscious of the apparent presumption for one " unknown to fame," to enter 
the lists with those historians of the Revolution, whose position in society gave 
them free access to every fountain of information concerning that eventful struggle, 
and whose imperishable works are, and ever will be, their most enduring monuments, 
affording to the writers and statesmen of Europe, the most reliable sources of 
practical instruction in the great lessons then taught. But none can be so great 
that " one cubit to his stature " may not be added. When Locke, the celebrated 
philosopher, was asked how he obtained such a vast amount of practical informa- 
tion, he replied, — " By asking questions of every man I meet, whether boor or 
gentleman." Thus in literature : the great aggregation of learning is but united 
molecules, gathered from the elaborations of the myriad of minds of successive 
generations ; and the most limited capacity may contribute a moiety, small though 
it be, to the general fund of human knowledge, and that moiety, like the widow's 
tnite, hath value. The unreal echo, when its mysterious articulations repeat the 
strains we love, is a substantial contributor to our happiness; and should this work 
prove, to the ears and hearts of the growing children of America, but an echo of 
the sweet voices of others who have chanted the heroics of the War of Independ- 
ence, it will serve a noble purpose, and we shall be content to have it called an 

ECHO. 

In the preparation of this volume the chief aim has been to give a concise, yet 
perfect and comprehensive, narrative of the leading events of that Revolution which 
dismembered the British emipre, and called another nation into existence. We 
neither hope nor desire to supplant other histories of the same events, for their 
usefulness in extending a knowledge of that conflict among our people, and exciting 
a corresponding degree of patriotism, lias been, and still is, incalculable. It would 
be neither generous nor in good taste, even to draw comparisons between this and its 
predecessors ; yet we may be allowed to say, that it possesses many claims to the 
kind regard of the public. No effort has been spared to stamp it with the character 
of strict truthfulness in fact and date, and to this end we have availed ourselves of 
every authentic source of information, both foreign and domestic, within our reach. 

So far as facts are concerned, we have freely appropriated to our use the fruits 
of the labors of others, but in all cases we have given full credit therefor, as far as 
practicable. We have endeavored to study others with discrimination ; and with 
their various beauties and defects before us, have elaborated our own plan in tli* 



x PREFACE 

construction of this work, having constantly in view its design for popular use. 
How far its leading characteristics entitle it to a post of precedence, or even 
of equality, in that particular sphere of usefulness for which it is designed, we 
leave to the decision of a discriminating public. 

Of the Pictorial Embellishments of the work, it does not become us to speak, 
except in relation to their general character and design. They are introduced not 
merely for the purpose of attracting the popular eye, without reference to fitness 
or meaning ; they are illustrative of facts, and form a part of the record. The 
delineations of Interesting Localities, having Revolutionary associations clustered 
around them, may be relied on as correct, all of them having been drawn by the 
writer, either from nature, or from approved pictures. The Portraits, likewise 
(forty-five in number), have been carefully copied from engravings which enjoy 
the public approval. The same may be affirmed of the sixteen Plans of Battles. 
The wide scope given in the illustration of the book, and the superior manner, 
without regard to cost, in which every part of the mechanical work is executed, 
proclaim the generous liberality of the publisher, and will, doubtless, be appre- 
ciated by the public. 

The Appendix contains several State Documents of great interest to every 
American. They were called forth by the exigencies of the times, during the 
inception, progress, and consummation of the Revolution, and contain the redun- 
dant seed of principles that grew and flourished amid the sufferings of the patriot 
strugglers in that conflict. They are drawn from sources not generally accessible, 
and make valuable addenda to the narrative of the text. 

At the conclusion of the volume is an Analytical Index, alphabetically arranged, 
prepared with great care. It will be found of much value to those who take up the 
volume for reference only, as well as to the general reader. The Marginal Dates, 
interspersed through the book, furnish a complete chronology at every step, and 
disencumber the text of that prolixity which their introduction, therein, would 
necessarily produce. These, combined with the Running Index at the head of each 
page, render the search for any given fact, the work of a few moments only. 

This work, we repeat, has been prepared expressly for a sphere of usefulness ; 
and the leading idea in the mind of writer and publisher has been, a desire to 
present to the American public, and particularly to the youth of our beloved 
country, a full and complete narrative of the War of Independence, avoiding 
unnecessary prolixity in detail ; thus furnishing a volume of intrinsic value at a 
cost so moderate, that the head of every family in the land may afford to spread its 
contents before his children, and instruct them in those lessons concerning the 
conflict for our " goodly heritage," which every child of the Republic should learn. 
How well we have succeeded in our design, let the work itself proclaim. 

B. J. L. 
New York, June, 1847. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS, 



M.0B 

Introduction "., 15 



CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL AFFAIRS OF THE COLONIES TO THE PEACE IN 1763. 

The Colonies originally unconnected. First united, by national antipathy to 
France. Collisions in Canada and Acadia, or Nova Scotia. French settle- 
ments in the Western Territory. Washington's mission thither. Military 
expedition under Washington. Events of the campaign. Convention at 
Albany, and plan for a Union of the Colonies. Braddock's expedition and 
defeat. Sir William Johnson's exploits. Death of Dieskau. Success of the 
French under Montcalm. Accession of Pitt to the Premiership of England. 
His vigorous measures. Reduction of Louisburg. Death of General Howe. 
Success of General Abercrombie. Capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 
Capture and surrender of Quebec. Death of Wolfe and Montcalm.- Eva- 
cuation of the Western Territory by the French. Cession of Canada to the 
British by the Treaty of 1763 25 to 50 

CHAPTER II. 

EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 

Causes which led to the Revolution. Oppressive acts early passed by Parlia- 
ment. Opposition of the people of Boston. Seizure of vessels by order of 
government. The Sugar Act. Accession of Grenville to the Premiership 
of England. Passage of the Stamp Act. Indignation of the Colonies. Dr. 
Franklin, Agent for the Colonies, in London. Parade of the Stamp Act in 
New York. Agitation in Virginia. Patrick Henry and his bold resofutions. 
First Colonial Congress. Declaration of Rights. Destruction of stamped 
paper. Sons of Liberty. Non-importation Associations. Repeal of- the 
Stamp Act. Imposition of duties on tea, &c. Great excitement among the 
Colonies. Massachusetts' circular. Tumult in Boston. Investment of Bos- 
ton by a military force. Dissolution of Colonial Assemblies . . . 51 to 87 

CHAPTER III. 

EVENTS FROM 1770 TO 1774. 

Affray in Boston. The City Guard insulted. Massacre of citizens by British 
soldiers. Trial of Captain Preston and his men. Their defence by John 
Adams and Josiah Quincy. Their acquittal. Repeal of all duties except on 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



tea. Continued dissatisfaction of the Americans. Non-importation agree- 
ments continued. Death of Grenville. Interception of the letters of Gover- 
nor Hutchinson and Lieutenant-Governor Oliver. Their transmission to 
America by Franklin. Excitement produced thereby. Franklin dismissed 
from the Post-office department of the Colonies. Opposition to royal regula- 
tions touching the finances of the Colonies. Recall of Governor Hutchin- 
son. Artful policy of the British Ministry. Enactment favorable to the 
East India Company. Apathy of Parliament and the friends of America 
therein. Effect on the Colonies, of the intelligence of the passage of the 
Tea Act. Arrival of vessels under its operation, laden with tea. Ports 
closed against them. Their return to England. Agreement of consignees 
not to receive the tea. Refusal of the Boston consignees to this agreement. 
Their appeal to the Governor for protection. Collection of a mob. The 
consignees and custom-house officers compelled to flee to Castle William. 
General meeting of the inhabitants. Perpetual guard appointed to prevent 
tea from being landed. Great assemblage at Faneuil Hall. Destruction g of 
tea in Boston harbor. . 89 to 112 



CHAPTER IV. 

EVENTS OF 1774. 

Proposition in Parliament to close the port of Boston. Debates thereon. 
Petition of American citizens presented by the Lord-Mayor of London. 
Passage of the bill. Arrival of General Gage. Closing of the port and 
removal of the custom-house, and appendages, to Salem. The people there 
refuse to accept the advantages of the measure. Patriotic kindness of the 
inhabitants of Marblehead to Boston merchants. Subversion of the Charter 
of Massachusetts. Act for sending persons capitally indicted, to another 
Colony, or to Britain, for trial. Distress in Boston. Fast-day in Virginia 
proclaimed. First Colonial Congress. Their commendation of Massa- 
chusetts. Addresses to the King and Ministry, and to the People of Canada. 
Fortification of Boston Neck. Passage of a bill for restraining the commerce 
of the New England Colonies. Ten thousand troops and several ships of the 
line ordered to America 113 to 141 



CHAPTER V. 

EVENTS OF 1775. 

Attempt of General Gage to destroy the military stores at Concord. The plan 
discovered, and measures taken to prevent it. Assemblage of militia at Lex- 
ington. Spread of the news throughout the Colonies. A general rush to 
arms. Twenty thousand Provincials environ the British at Boston. Decla- 
ration of Independence in North Carolina. The Mecklenburg Resolutions. 
Seizure of Ticonderoga and Crown Point by the Americans. British rein- 
forced by Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne. Second Continental Congress. 
Conditional offer of pardon. Battle of Bunker Hill. Defeat of the Ameri- 
cans, and death of General Warren. Proceedings in Congress. General 
Washington appointed Commander-in-chief of all the forces. Organization 
of the army at Cambridge. Flight of the Colonial royal Governors. Burn- 
ing of Norfolk. Siege of Quebec, and death of General Montgomery. De- 
feat of the Americans. Movements of General Arnold 142 to 1S3 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. xiii 



TAGE 

CHAPTER VI. 



EVENTS OF 1776. 

Siege of Boston from Dorchester Heights. British troops evacuate Boston, and 
with fifteen hundred families of loyalists, sail for Halifax. Entree of the 
American army. Defence of Boston, and march towards New York. Sir 
Henry Clinton joined at Cape Fear River by the squadron of Sir Peter Par- 
ker. The fleet with Cornwallis's troops, sail for Charleston. Charleston 
fortified. The siege unsuccessful. General rendezvous of the British forces 
at New York. Formidable preparations of England. Employment of seven- 
teen thousand Hessian troops. Debates in Parliament. Fifty-five thousand 
troops ordered to America. Call of Congress upon the Colonies to sever 
their allegiance to Great Britain. Virginia Resolutions. Declaration of 
Independence. Battle of Long Island. Battle of White Plains. Surren- 
der of Fort Washington to the British. Great diminution of the American 
forces. Retreat across New Jersey. Succession of defeats. Passage of the 
Delaware and Battle of Trenton. Re-animation of the American troops 184 to 21 7 



CHAPTER VII. 

events of 1777. 

Successful stratagem of Washington. Battle of Princeton, and death of General 
Mercer. Rapid march of the Americans to Morristown. They overrun the 
whole of the northern part of New Jersey. The people of New Jersey coa- 
lesce with the American army. Inoculation of the whole army with the 
small- pox. Return of Congress to Philadelphia. Success of Silas Deane's 
mission to France. Franklin sent to Paris. His success in exciting the favor 
of the French. Expedition of La Fayette. His arrival in America. De- 
struction of American military stores at Peekskill and Danbury. Retreat of 
the British from New Jersey. Capture of Major-General Prescott. Admiral 
Howe sails for Philadelphia. Battle of Brandywine. Adjournment of Con- 
gress to Lancaster. The British army take possession of Philadelphia. Bat- 
tle of Germantown. Capture of the forts on the Delaware by the British. 
Reverses of the northern division of the American army. Kosciusko. Eat- 
tle of Bennington. Battle of Saratoga. Capture and surrender of Bur- 
goyne. A plot to place General Gates at the head of the army, defeated. 
Adoption by Congress of Articles of Confederation 219 to 250 

CHAPTER VIII. 

EVENTS OF 177S. 

Views of Ministers and Parliament. Effect of the news of Burgoyne's defeat. 
Passage of Conciliatory Bills. Commissioners sent to America. Attempts 
at bribery. Indignation of Congress. Acknowledgment of American Inde- 
pendence by the Court of France. Treaty of Alliance. Arrival of a French 
fleet. British evacuate Philadelphia. Battle of Monmouth. Reprimand 
and suspension of General Lee. Attempted engagement of the English and 
French fleets. Destruction of shipping and stores on the New England coast. 
Attack on Wyoming by Butler with tories and Indians. Horrible massacre 
and destruction of the settlement. Retaliatory expedition. Attack on 
Cherry Valley. Expedition of the British against Georgia. Capture of 
Savannah. . 251 to 277 



xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

EVENTS OF 1779. 

Plan of the campaign. Contention of the two fleets in the West Indies. Ex- 
pedition against Port Royal, and defeat of the British. Outrages of the 
tories in Georgia. Their defeat and dispersion. Expedition under General 
Ash. Defeat of the Americans, and entire subjugation of Georgia. Battle 
of Stono Ferry. British ravages upon the coasts of the Northern States. 
Success of the British in Virginia and New York. Surrender of Stony 
Point and Verplanck's Point. Plunder of New Haven Tryon's infamous 
boast. Recapture of Stony Point. Capture of British at Paulus's Hook. 
Cruelties of the Six Nations. Battle of the Chemung. Siege of Savannah. 
Death of Count Pulaski. Declaration of war against Great Britain by Spain. 
Bloody battle on the coast of Scotland between French and English vessels. 
Exploits of Paul Jones. Depressed feelings of the Americans at the close of 
the year. Depreciation of Continental money. Great preparations by Bri- 
tain for the next campaign 278 to 302 



CHAPTER X. 

EVENTS OF 1780. 

Suspension of operations at the North. Sir Henry Clinton's expedition against 
Charleston. His disastrous voyage. Capture of Fort Moultrie and surrender 
of Charleston. British expeditions into the interior. Subjugation of South 
Carolina. Border skirmishes. March of General Gates to the relief of the 
Southern Provinces. Union of the forces of Lords Rawdon and Cornwallis. 
Battle of Sanders's Creek, and defeat of the Americans. Greene supersedes 
Yates. Surprise and dispersion of Sumter's troops. Severe measures of 
Cornwallis. Indignation of the people. Atrocities of American renegades. 
Battle of King's Mountain. Battle of Blackstock. Exploits of General 
Marion. Operations in New Jersey. Arrival of Admiral de Ternay, with 
Count de Rochambeau. Treason of Arnold. Capture of Major Andre. His 
trial, conviction, and execution. Declaration of war against Holland by 
Great Britain. Capture of Henry Laurens. Large Parliamentary votes ot 
supplies for the ensuing campaign 302 to 326 

CHAPTER XI. 

EVENTS OF 1781. 

Comparison of the condition of the two armies. Threatened rebellion of the 
Pennsylvania troops. The mutineers march to Princeton. Attempt of Clin- 
ton's emissaries to bribe them. Their indignation and seizure of these 
agents. Their necessities relieved by Congress. Mutiny of the New Jersey 
troops. Its speedy suppression. Taxation and loans. Liberality of Robert 
Morris. Establishment of the Bank of North America. British descent 
upon Virginia, and destruction of Richmond. Attempt to capture Arnold. 
Arnold and Phillips overrun the country. Battle of the Cowpens. Retreat 
of the Americans. Providential interposition. Battle of Guilford Court- 
house. Battle of Hobkirk's Hill. Siege of Ninety-Six. British officer 
dining with Marion. Execution of Colonel Hayne. Battle of Eutaw Springs. 
Virginia overrun by Cornwallis. Junction of the allied armies. Plundering 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



expedition of Arnold in Connecticut. Murder of Colonel Ledyard, and the 
garrison of Fort Trumbull. Siege of Yorktown, and surrender of Cornwallis. 
Public thanksgivings of the army and Congress 327 to 349 

CHAPTER XII. 

EVENTS OF 1782-83. 

Vigilant efforts adopted by Washington. Closing military movements at the 
South. Case of Captain Huddy. Proceedings in Parliament. Arrival of Sir 
Guy Carleton. Preliminary negotiations for Peace. Death of Rockingham, 
and accession of Shelburne. Cessation of hostilities in America, and evacu- 
ation of cities. Alarming state of the country. A Monarchy proposed to 
Washington. The " Newburgh Addresses." Disbanding of the army. 
Washington's Farewell Address. His resignation, and retirement to Mount 
Vernon 350 to 360 

CHAPTER XIII. 

EVENTS FROM 1784 TO 1789. 

The powers of Congress. Fears of an open insurrection. Shay's insurrection. 
Convention at Annapolis to amend the Articles of Confederation. Doings of 
the Convention. Adoption of the Constitution by the Convention, and its 
ratification by the States. Organization of the government. Washington 
elected President of the United States. His inauguration. . . . 361 to 363 

APPENDIX. 

Stamp Act, 369 to 376 

Declaration of Rights 376 to 37S 

Petition to the King. ... 378 to 3S0 

Memorials to Parliament 380 to 384 

Propositions for a General Congress 384 to 3S5 

Members of the First Continental Congress 385 to 3S6 

Addresses to the People of Great Britan 386 to 392 

" " " Anglo-American Colonies 392 to 401 

• " " Quebec, 401 to 40S 

Petition to the King 408 to 412 

Address to the Inhabitants of Canada 412 to 41 1 

A declaration of Congress, setting forth the causes of the war , . . 414 to 419 

Second Petition to the King 419 to 422 

Address to the Assembly of Jamaica 422 to 424 

" " People of Ireland 424 to 429 

Declaration of Independence 429 to 435 

Articles of Confederation 435 to 443 

A Fragment of Polybius 443 to 446 

Definitive Treaty of Peace 446 to 450 

Newburgh Address, and Washington's Speech 450 to 456 

Washington's Circular Letter to the Governors of the States. . . . 456 to 463 

" Farewell Address to the Army 463 to 466 

Dr. Franklin's Motion for Prayers in the Convention 466 to 468 

Proceedings in relation to the Constitution of the United States. . . 463 to 474 

Constitution of the United States 474 to 489 

Analytical Index 491 et seq. 




INTRODUCTION, 



HE War of the American Revolution was 
emphatically a war of Principle ; a conflict 
of Opinion and for Power, between Despotism 
and Freedom ; a struggle of the patrician few 
with the plebeian many for the mastery. 
Under the banner of the former, were mar- 
shalled the bold assumption of the divine 
right of kings — of sovereignty vested in one man, Dei Gratia ; the 
feudal pretensions and asserted prerogatives of titled aristocracy, and 
the blind and almost unconquerable bigotry of the governed, volun- 
tarily chained by their prejudices to the car of monarchy, and led 
captive with ease. 




28 INTRODUCTION. 

Under the banner of the latter, were marshalled the sublime 
jurisprudential theories of bygone reformers ; freedom of thought, 
opinion and action ; faith in the capacity of man for self-govern- 
ment ; a just appreciation of the true dignity of humanity, and the 
fearless assertion of the glorious principles of equality of birth, and 
equality in the exercise of inalienable rights, conferred impartially 
by our Creator. These were the moral antagonisms, whose attri- 
tion produced the flame of the American Revolution.* 

The physical forces which these discordant principles drew up in 
battle array, were equally antipodal, viewed as subjects for patient 
endurance of hardships, and indomitable energy in the accomplish- 
ment of declared purposes. 

The armies sent by monarchy to conquer the Colonies, were 
officered by men who had been reared in the halls of nobility, or the 
mansions of opulence ; men, who made war a profession whereby 
to obtain the bauble glory, — military glory — that brilliant lie that 
for so many ages has led mankind astray — and not as an instru- 
mentality for developing or maintaining principles that form the basis 
of human happiness. The troops which they led were mostly 
veteran warriors. They came from the continental battle fields ; 
they came from the easy conquests of the Indian Peninsula ; and the 
discipline of the camp was to them an easy restraint. Officers and 
men, all came fully panoplied for the conflict. Their " military 
chest" commanded the ready service of the exchequer of a wealthy 
and powerful people. Their superior numbers and discipline, 
coupled with a feeling of utter contempt for the " rebels" they came 
to subdue and humble, gave them such confidence of certain and 
speedy success, that the thoughts of hardships to be endured, diffi- 
culties to encounter, a disastrous overthrow, never interposed 
between their vision and the glittering prize of glory to be won ; and 
hence no misgivings weakened their courage ; no doubts made them 
falter. The dynasties of the Old World wished them success ; they 
were confident and firm. 

The colonial army was composed of men unused to the arts of 
war. Its ranks were filled by farmers and artizans ; men, who had 
seldom heard the bray of the trumpet, or the roll of the drum, 
awakened into action by the behests of war. Their officers were 
.men of comparatively small military renown. They were nurtured 
amid the quiet scenes of a peaceful people ; and they were called to 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

the command of battalions, not specially because of their excellence 
as military tacticians, but because of their possession of a combina- 
tion of excellences as patriots ; as men of prudence and sound 
judgment ; men to be relied on. Officers and soldiers well knew 
the hardships to be endured, and the obstacles to be overcome. 
They well knew how limited were the resources of the country ; 
how few the men, how scanty the supplies to be obtained. They 
well knew the power and the resources of the enemy from abroad, 
and they had carefully numbered the inimical phalanx of royalists 
and " faint-hearts" in their midst. They went into the conflict fully 
prepared to suffer much ; yet, relying upon the justice of their 
cause, they felt as confident of final success as did their haughty 
foes. Such were the physical elements engaged in the War of the 
Revolution. 

A thirst for glory ; a blind devotion to royalty, and a mercenary 
spirit on one side ; and aspirations for freedom, devotion to, and 
faith in, Republican doctrines, and the faithful guardianship of home 
from the unhallowed foot-prints of tyranny on the other, were the 
impulses that brought the heroes of Britain, and the patriots of 
America, upon the field of personal combat. The struggle was long 
and desperate, and year after year, the balance of destiny was 
equipoised. Victory at length gave her palm to Republicanism, and 
Royalty discomfited, retired from the arena. The ways of a myste- 
rious Providence were made plain ; a mighty problem was solved ; 
a brighter morning than earth ever saw, save when angels pro- 
claimed, " Peace on earth, good will to men," dawned upon 
humanity, and the car of progress, so long inert, started upon its 
wondrous course. 

The poean of victory, chanted by the great chorus of American 
freemen, was echoed back from Europe by thousands upon thou- 
sands of hearts attuned in unison ; yet in that response were heard 
the trembling notes of fear and doubt. Prayer was fervent ; hope 
lifted high her oriflamme ; yet fear interposed its cautious counsels, 
and doubt whispered its dangerous suggestions in the ear of hope. 
Enlightened statesmen and philanthropists turned to the chronicles 
of the past for a parallel or a prototype on which to build a confi- 
dent hope of success ; and despotism and its abettors also delved 
therein for examples of failure and destruction, incident to such a 
presumptuous begetting of a nation. Both read the same lesson . 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

one with despondency, the other with exultation. The democracy 
of the Greeks, and the republicanism of the Romans, appeared, as 
in truth they were, misnomers ; the shadows of unknown substances. 
Liberty, at first pure and chaste, became speedily arrayed in mere- 
tricious garb, and changed to libertinism ; and the tyranny of repub- 
lican majorities speedily assumed the most hateful features of des- 
potism. In a word, the ever-tangible discordance and speedy over- 
throw of ancient republics, and the more recently recorded destiny 
of Venice and Genoa, taken as criterions for judgment, furnished 
philanthropy with scanty hope for the success of the disenthralled 
Colonies ; while royalty, certain of their speedy downfall, like their 
predecessors, made the birth of this Republic a standing jest, and its 
early demise a scoffing prophecy. 

But there was an element of vitality in the constitution of the new 
Republic, unknown to its predecessors, and all important for its 
perpetuity. It was the element of personal equality, in the posses- 
sion and enjoyment of social and political rights. No privileged class 
was recognized, no demarkation lines of caste defaced the charter of 
our prerogatives. The fountain of knowledge was freely unsealed 
to all ; the road to wealth and honor was freely opened to all. 
The prize of distinction was the incentive to learn and to educate ; 
and general intelligence was (and is now) the main pillar of the 
State, growing with the growth, and strengthening with the strength, 
of the Republic. This was wanting in all past republics, and hence 
their speedy decadence and annihilation. 

The war of the American Revolution taught monarchs and states- 
men a great moral lesson, universal in its application, and valuable 
beyond estimate. It taught them to respect the inalienable rights of 
the governed, and to regard political freedom as the firmest pillar of 
the throne. It taught them to abandon the dangerous policy of 
coercing men into submission to the ministrations of palpable error, 
and of quieting the rebellion of intellect and sentiment by physical 
power. It taught them to regard as futile and impious, any attempt 
to stay the progress of truth, for its power is almighty ; it is the 
throne of the Eternal. It opened their understanding to the fact, that 
the legitimate source of power is the people ; and that vox populi 
vox Dei, cannot be denied when that voice utters the wise lessons 
of truth. It taught them to respect opinion ; to eschew intole- 
rance ; to receive with caution, and view with scrutiny, the pharisai- 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

cal teachings of creeds, whether religious or political ; and to regard 
the race as a unity ; children of one father ; co-heirs in, the inherit- 
ance of those prerogatives which God alone can bestow, and which 
God alone can withhold. These were hard and almost incompre- 
hensible lessons for bigots to learn. Their minds, long clouded 
with the gross error of king-craft and priest-craft, were almost 
impervious to the light of political and religious truth, which 
the war of the Revolution unveiled ; and it was long after the 
judgment was convinced, and the intellect acknowledged the 
truth of the lesson, ere the heart, at whose portal stood human 
pride mailed in the panoply of hoary precedent, would yield its 
assent, and allow the spirit of human progress to enter and assume 
control. 

Yet the lessons taught, were learned ; and the rich fruit of that 
glorious seed-time is now everywhere visible in the Old World. 
Republican institutions grow side by side with monarchy, and their 
branches intertwine ; and despotism proper has scarcely a foothold 
in Europe. There is not a code of laws, by which its empires are 
governed, that does not bear, in some clause, the signet of the 
American Revolution. Its voices reverberated amid the stupendous 
structures of feudal folly and feudal wrong ; their deep foundations 
were shaken, and they crumbled into dust. A few still remain, 
but they are fast fading away, like stars of morning before the 
brightness of a more glorious orb ; and when the years of the first 
century of the New Era shall be told by the gnomon of Time, 
scarcely a vestige of these dark monuments will remain, to cast their 
shadow upon the dial. Our experiment in self-government has been 
fairly tried. It is no longer an experiment, but a grand demonstra- 
tion. May we not in sober truth, and not in a boastful spirit, claim 
for our Republic the meed of superiority ? Is it not to jurisprudence, 
what the Venus de' Medici is to art, a model of classic grace, dis- 
figured, it is true, by impurities cast upon it by the careless and 
unwise, but in form and feature, as perfect as human judgment can 
fashion it ? Will it not be a study for all time ; and will not the 
transatlantic republics yet to be chiselled from the rough stones 
of old systems, look to the beauteous child of the American 
Revolution, as a model par excellence ? These are questions 
which the honest pride of every American citizen answers in the 
affirmative. 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

But another question forces itself upon the mind and heart of the 
enlightened patriot — Shall this rich inheritance be long perpetuated, 
and how ? The answer is at hand. Educate every child — educate 
every emigrant, for "education is the cheap defence of nations"* 
Educate all, physically, intellectually and morally. Instruct, not 
only the head, but the heart ; enlighten the mind, and, by cultiva- 
tion, enlarge and multiply the affections. Above all, let our youth 
be instructed in all that appertains to the vital principles of our 
Republic. To appreciate the blessings they enjoy, and to create in 
them those patriotic emotions, which shall constitute them ardent 
defenders in the hour of trial, it is necessary for them to be taught 
the price of their goodly heritage ; the fearful cost of blood and 
treasure, suffering and woe, at which it was obtained. They should 
be led by the hand of history into every patriotic council ; upon 
every battle field ; through every scene of trial and hardship, of hope 
and despondency, of triumph and defeat, where our fathers acted and 
endured, so that when we 

" Go ring the bells and fire the guns, 
And fling the starry banner out— 
Cry Freedom ! till our little ones 
Send back their tiny shout ;"f 

our children may not, in their ignorance, ask, " What mean ye by 
this service V'% 

The duty of the historian of the Revolution, as one of the national 
teachers, is a difficult one, and if he truly feels the weight of the 
responsibility resting upon him, he will instinctively shrink from the 
task, or approach it with trembling misgivings, relying solely upon 
Omnipotent Wisdom, in the exercise of his judgment and the 
guidance of his pen. That same nation, whose rulers sent armies 
here to oppress their brethren, our fathers ; to awe them into submis- 
sion to a " tyrant, unfit to be the ruler of a free people," and who, by 
every act of injustice and cruelty which malevolence could invent, 
sought to enslave the infant Colonies, is still a powerful and haughty 
sovereignty ; yet in language, laws, religion, and commerce, is 
closely allied to us in bonds of mutual friendship. While patriotic 
indignation would prompt the historian to speak harshly of Britain, 

• Burke t Whittier. X Exodus xii., 2G. 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

its rulers and people, when recording the story of the wrongs our 
fathers endured ; and he might justly speak in terms of unqualified 
condemnation of the inflictors and abettors of those wrongs, yet it is 
manifestly improper and unjust to excite unfriendly feelings against 
that same nation now. The actors in that bloody drama have passed 
away, and their places in court, forum and field, are filled by men 
who as deeply deplore and condemn those acts of George and his 
ministers, as we. 

Britain, though old, has been an apt scholar in learning the lesson 
taught by our War of Independence, and nobly are her children 
practising its precepts. Monarchy there is now but a dim shadow 
of its former self ; and, instead of using the people as an instrument 
of its ambition and lust, it is but an executive arm to do the bidding 
of the people's will. Power has changed its dwelling-place ; it has 
left the narrow precincts of the throne, and domiciles upon the broad 
domain of the intellect of the nation. Religion, too, is stooping 
from its lofty position upon the upper step of the throne, and with its 
best friends, Freedom of Opinion, and Freedom of Thought, is 
leaving the cathedral % for the chapel, and spreading its broad mantle 
of Toleration alike over assenters and dissenters. Every year pro- 
duces a closer affiliation in thought, feeling and action, between us 
and our stately mother ; and the time is not far distant, when geo- 
graphical demarkation alone shall make us distinctive nations, for we 
shall meet upon the same broad platform of Human Right, and labor 
in the same great cause of Human Progress, without a discordant 
feeling to disturb our harmony. 

While the following pages shall present a faithful narrative of the 
War of American Independence ; while not a syllable of deserving 
condemnation of British tyranny and oppression shall be withheld ; 
while every record of patriotic action, calculated to make the heart 
of every American citizen glow with love for his country, and 
reverence for those who procured the blessed inheritance, shall 
be rehearsed, it shall be our aim to do this, and this only; 
and not, by the utterance of a single word, probe the healing 
wound of the last century, or sever one ligament of friendly feeling 
that now binds us to our English brethren. Let us rather 
strengthen that bond, for our alliance is noble and honorable. The 
object of our friendship is worthy thereof, for, when we cast our 
eyes' across the Atlantic, England, radiant with learning, art, 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

science, religion, patriotism, every element of human progress, 
every ingredient of social good, every constituent of true greatness, 
beams like Hesperus amid the lesser orbs of the Old World. Let 
every American heart respond to the sentiment of her own sweet 
poet Cowper : — 

" England, with all thy faults, 
I love thee still." 



THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE, 




cession. 

William Pitt, First Earl of Chat- 
ham. 

Washington, from an Early Print 
by Trumbull. 



CHAPTER I. 



PROPER point of departure in the delineation 
of the events of the War of American Inde- 
pendence, is the period when the several English 
colonies, planted along the Atlantic sea-board 
from Massachusetts to Georgia, first united for 
the purpose of checking the extension of French 
settlements and the growth of French empire 
upon this continent. They were prompted to 
this union by sentiments of true loyalty to the 
home government, and the counsels of self- 
interest. Until this period each colony, established upon its own 
particular basis, without any special reference to its sister settle- 




26 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [chap. r. 

Union proposed by Colonial Governors. National jealousies. 

ments, felt no bond of common interest with them. In fact, the 
discordance of sectional feeling, in matters relating to boundaries and 
other differences of opinion, growing out of imperfect demarkations 
of territory, produced sectional jealousies and rivalries that some- 
times amounted to a considerable degree of animosity : yet the 
consciousness of a common origin and fraternity in language, and 
the dictates of sound judgment, so strongly developed in the Colonies, 
preserved them from acts of open hostility, or even the indulgence 
of feelings of permanent hatred. 

Prior to the period now under consideration, the Colonies had no 
thoughts of union, for any object whatever. Nicholson and other 
colonial Governors had, at different times, proposed a union of 
several of the Colonies, but the motives which gave birth to these 
suggestions were so manifestly mercenary that the people spurned 
them with disdain. They were made by men ambitious of extending 
the power of the crown, advancing their own aggrandizement, and 
of checking, in its incipient growth, the budding spirit of independ- 
ence, becoming so frequently manifest. They feared the expansion 
of this bud into the lovely flower and mature fruit, and at once 
sought to destroy its vitality or retard its growth. But these unwise 
counsels and recommendations to the crown always gave new life to 
languishing aspirations for freedom, and increased the odium in 
which the colonists, so frequently with just cause, held their appointed 
rulers. 

The union proposed by the colonial Governors, and so promptly 
rejected by the people, was finally accomplished through the instru- 
mentality of old national antipathies felt towards France, and which 
were remarkably strong in the less refined state of society in America. 
To political hatreds were added those of antagonistic religious creeds 
(Roman Catholic and Protestant) ; and when the arena of conflict 
between Great Britain and France was transferred to America the 
colonists were ready to bury all domestic jealousies and disloyal 
resolutions, and fly to arms. 

To understand the nature and cause of this union, it is necessary 
to glance at prior events, in which Britain and France were the 
chief actors. While the European settlements in the new world 
were few, and scattered over a vast wilderness, and their trade con- 
sisted chiefly in the traffic of trinkets for fur and game with the 
Indians, the respective governments of the English, French, Dutch, 
and Spanish settlers, paid but little regard to their rivalries. But when 
these settlements became extended, and their operations began to 
have an influence upon general commerce, national jealousies arose, 
which finally assumed an attitude of open hostility. 



chap, i.] COLONIAL WARS— TO 1763. 27 

First settlement of Canada. First expedition against Quebec. 

From the earliest settlement of the English colonies to the treaty 
of Paris in 1763, they were frequently harassed by skirmishes and 
wars with adjacent tribes of Indians, and also with other European 
settlers. The Indians were frequently instigated by the latter to the 
commission of the most dreadful acts of cruelty towards the English, 
and then turned every advantage gained to their own account. 

The French first settled and possessed Canada. Nearly 
simultaneously with these settlements, they planted colonies 
in Florida, and claimed, by priority of discovery, exclusive jurisdic- 
tion over the whole valley of the Ohio and Mississippi. To secure this 
claim, they built a line of forts from Canada to Florida.* By bribes 
and other nefarious means of persuasion, they won over to their 
interest and aid several powerful tribes of Indians ; and finally 
arranged a systematic plan of encroachments upon the English 
domain. 

In order to prevent these encroachments, and to weaken the 
strength of the French, it was contemplated to conquer Canada. 
As early as 1629 an attempt was made to despoil France of her 
possessions on the banks of the St. Lawrence. During that year, 
Sir David Kirk equipped a small fleet, and surprised and captured 
Quebec, then an infant French colony, and considered of little 
importance. At the conclusion of peace, in 1632, Quebec was 
restored to France. 

Some years subsequent to these events, the allied tribes of Indians 
called the Five Nations waged a terrible war against the French in 
Canada ; and the English of New York gave their aid to the savages. 
This tended to strengthen the bitter animosities of the English and 
French, both here and at home ; yet the war, which consisted chiefly 
of skirmishes, did not receive the regular sanction of the respective 
governments till after the revolution of 1688,t when open hostilities 
were declared between the two nations. Britain now determined 
to strike an effectual blow at the power of France beyond the 
Atlantic. 

In 1690, the commissioners of the Colonies projected an expedi- 
tion against Quebec. The land forces were under the command of 
General Winthrop, and amounted to eight hundred and fifty men, 
raised chiefly from the Colonies of New England and New York. 
A fleet of armed ships and transports with one thousand eight 
hundred men, under the command of Sir William Phipps, was sent 

* Florida then included the whole region bordering upon the northern shore of 
the Gulf of Mexico. 

t In favor of William, Prince of Orange, who was made king of England, and ruled 
conjointly with his queen, Mary. 



28 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [chap. i. 



Queen Anne s War. Expedition against Canada. 

at the same time to the St. Lawrence, to co-operate with the land 
forces. Acadia* was subdued with very little resistance, and the 
fleet reached Quebec in safety ; but the expedition proved unsuc- 
cessful, owing to a delay of the fleet, a want of boats and provisions 
among the land forces, and the able defence made by the Count 
Frontenac. An attempt against Montreal was also unsuccessful, 
that post being ably defended by Des Callieres. The peace of 
1697 suspended hostilities ; and, to the great discontent of the colo- 
nies, Acadia was restored to France. 

In 1701, England declared war against France, in consequence of 
the French government having acknowledged the son of James IT. 
(an exile in France at the time of his father's death) as king of 
England, when that government had settled the crown upon Anne, 
the second daughter of James, and then the reigning sovereign. 
Another cause of offence was the act of the French monarch in 
placing his grandson, Philip of Anjou, upon the throne of Spain, and 
thus, as England maintained, destroying the balance of power in 
Europe. These causes arrayed England against France and Spain 
in bloody conflict, known as " Queen Anne's War," and the " War 
of the Spanish Succession." 

This renewal of hostilities gave the Colonies another opportunity 
to meet their old enemies upon the battle-field. Two expeditions 
against Canada, one in 1704, the other in 1707, failed in achieving 
the conquest of that province ; but, in 1710, General Nicholson, with 
about twenty-five hundred men, raised chiefly from the colonies of 
New England and New York, and aided by a fleet from England, 
captured the garrison of Port Royal," demanded and obtained 
a surrender of the place, changed its name to Annapolis, 
in honor of Queen Anne, and Acadia, or Nova Scotia, was perma 
nently annexed to the British crown. 

The following year, a land force under Nicholson, and a naval 
armament under Sir Hovenden Walker, proceeded towards Quebec, 
with a view of not only effecting the conquest of that city, but the 
subjugation of all Canada. The fleet reached the mouth of the 
St. Lawrence in safety, but the obstinate pride of Walker refused to 
listen to the advice of pilots, and, on the night of the second of Sep- 
tember, eight ships of the squadron were wrecked on the northern 
shore, near the Seven Islands. This disaster frustrated the designs 
of the expedition, and it was abandoned. Walker, with the remain- 
der of his fleet, returned to England, and the colonial troops, dis- 
appointed and chagrined, were marched back to Boston. They 

* Acadia comprehended the whole region now called Nova Scotia, or New Soot- 
land. 



CHAP. I.] 


COLONIAL WARS- 


-TO 1763. 29 


Treaty of Utrecht. 




Expedition against Lotiisburg. 



were, however, far from being disheartened, and would, doubtless, 
have ultimately conquered Canada, had not. the peace of Utrecht, 
which took place in 1713, terminated hostilities between France and 
Great Britain. By the terms of this treaty of peace, France retained 
Canada, but ceded to Great Britain the territories of Nova Scotia 
and Newfoundland ; and also assigned to her all claims to the sove- 
reignty of the Five Nations. 

A peace between Great Britain and France of thirty years' dura- 
tion succeeded the treaty of Utrecht, and during this period the 
Colonies enjoyed comparative repose from enemies without ; yet the 
spirit of independence, increased by their late demonstration of 
strength and importance, made them speak and act boldly against 
the petty tyrannies of the three successive royal governors* appointed 
to rule the Colonies of New England, and constant internal agitation 
kept the social waters in commotion. This commotion was finally 
allayed by concessions to the colonists, and when, in 1744, hostilities 
again broke out between Britain and France, the people of New 
England, with characteristic ardor, were ready to stand shoulder to 
shoulder with the mother country. This war originated in European 
disputes concerning the kingdom of Austria, and for a long time was 
confined chiefly to Great Britain and Spain ; but it finally extended 
to France, and, as a consequence, involved again the French and 
English possessions in America. 

By the treaty of Utrecht, France, though deprived of Nova Scotia, 
had retained the island of Cape Breton, and erected upon it a fortress, 
called Louisburg, at an expenditure of about six millions of dollars. 
It was supposed to be one of the strongest fortresses of modern times, 
yet the colonists of New England determined to besiege it, and for 
that purpose raised an army of four thousand men, and placed them 
under the command of Colonel Pepperel, as commander-in-chief, 
and Roger Wolcott, second in command. This expedition was sug- 
gested and planned by Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts Bay, who 
justly regarded Louisburg as the key to the French possessions in 
America. Commodore Warren, then in command of an English 
fleet in the West Indies, was invited to co-operate with the Colonies, 
but declined to do so without orders from the home government. 
They therefore resolved to make the attempt alone, and, on the 30th 
of April, they sailed for Louisburg. At Canseau, a small island at 
the eastern extremity of Nova Scotia, they unexpectedly met the 
fleet of Warren, who had just received orders to repair to Boston, 
and concert measures with Shirley relative to services either in 
defence of the Colonies or aggressions against the French. On the 

• Shute, Burnett, and Belcher. 



30 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [chap. i. 

Surrender of Louisburg. Effect of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. 

11th of May, greatly to the surprise and alarm of the French, the 
armament came in sight of Louisburg, and the land forces effected a 
landing at Garbarus Bay. The next day a detachment of four hun- 
dred men marched toward the royal battery, burning the houses and 
stores in their progress. The French in dismay, supposing the 
whole army was approaching, spiked the guns and lied in confusion. 
The battery was immediately seized by the colonial troops, and the 
guns that remained serviceable were turned upon the town and 
against the battery upon a small island at the entrance of the 
harbor. 

Vigorous preparations for reducing the city were at once made ; 
and, in the meanwhile, Warren captured a seventy-four gun- 
ship,* with five hundred and sixty men, and a large quantity of 
military stores, designed for the garrison. The 29th of June was 
agreed upon as the day for commencing a combined attack by sea and 
land, but on the day previous, the whole island, with the city, fort, and 
batteries, were surrendered. A powerful naval armament, under the 
Duke d'Anville, was subsequently sent, for the double purpose of 
recovering this grand bulwark of French power in America, and for 
the destruction of all the English colonies upon the coast ; but 
frightful storms, disease, and shipwrecks, dispersed and disheartened 
the fleet, and the remnant returned to France. In 1748 a treaty of 
peace was concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the western part of Ger- 
many, between France and England, and the colonists had the 
mortification to see the fruits of their valor wrested from them by 
the restoration of Cape Breton to France, in exchange for some 
continental advantages. Thus the British king and his ministry, 
regardless of the claims of common justice, and ungrateful for the 
prizes won by colonial heroism, allowed a blind selfishness to guide 
them into a way of disadvantages greater than all the advantages 
gained; for they weakened the loyalty of the Colonies, and awakened 
a spirit of discontent, deep and permanent. The latter hesitated not 
to charge the home government with a desire to conciliate and main- 
tain the power of Louis, in order to check the spirit of Colonial 
independence. 

The French, perceiving that nothing had actually been lost to 
them by the late conflicts, were inspired with a desire to extend their 
possessions in North America. Having, at various points, been 
brought into contact with the back settlements of their powerful 
rival, they had been generally successful in gaining the alliance of 
the Indians, from whose warlike character important aid was expect- 
ed. They made the most active movements in New Brunswick, 
hoping thence to penetrate into Nova Scotia, where they would find a 



chap, i.] COLONIAL WARS— TO 1763. 31 

French Claims. The Ohio Company 

population originally French, and still strongly attached to the country 
of their fathers. But the enterprises which caused the greatest 
inquietude took place along the Ohio and the Mississippi. The 
colonists had already, at different points, penetrated the barriers of 
the Alleghany, and began to discover the value of the country ex- 
tending to those mighty streams. The enemy, on the other hand, 
in virtue of certain voyages made in the preceding century by Mar- 
quette and La Salle, claimed the whole range of the Mississippi, by 
attaining which their settlements in Canada and at New Orleans 
would be formed into one continuous territory. This pretension, if 
referred to that peculiar law* according to which Europeans have di- 
vided America among themselves, seems not wholly unfounded. They 
had added, however, a more exorbitant claim ; that of all the streams 
falling into the great river ; which would have carried them to the 
very summit of the Alleghanies, and have hemmed in the British 
colonists in a manner to which they were by no means disposed to 
submit. The banks of the Ohio became the debateable ground on 
which this collision mainly took placet 

So preposterous and untenable appeared the claims of the French, 
and so confident were the British in their own right, that an asso- 
ciation was formed, in 1749, of London merchants, combined with 
Virginia planters, called the Ohio Company, with the design of 
settling the country on the Ohio River. They received from the 
crown a grant of six hundred thousand acres on that river ; but this, 
and like donations to other parties, could not be turned to any 
account with safety, while the French, aided by their Indian allies, 
were determined to maintain their claims. The formation of these 
companies, receiving the royal sanction and aid, gave just grounds 
to the French for apprehending the organization of a systematic 
plan to deprive them of their communication between Canada and 
Louisiana. They at once began the erection of forts south of Lake 
Erie, on the waters of the Ohio, which called forth the complaints of 
the Ohio Company, and they appealed to Virginia for protection, as 
the territory in dispute was included in the original charter of that 
Colony. These complaints, in connection with rumors that the tribes 
of Indians friendly to the English, alarmed for their safety, were 
beginning to waver in their fidelity; and that the hostile tribes, encou- 
raged by the French, began to exhibit symptoms of open hostility, 
determined Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony 

* " The first discovery of a river, by the subject of any nation, gives to that 
nation the right of possession of the whole country watered by that river and its 
tributaries " — Vattel. 

t United States (Edinburgh Cabinet Library), vol. i.,p. 319. 



32 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [chap. i. 

, Washington appointed a Commissioner to confer with the French. 

and his council, to send a commissioner to confer with the French 
commander, urge him to desist from further encroachments, and to 
ascertain as correctly as possible the actual state of affairs on the 
frontier. This commission was a delicate and hazardous one, re- 
quiring great discretion, a knowledge of the country, and an acquaint- 
ance with the Indian language and character. The execution of this 
important duty was entrusted to George Washington, then a youth of 
only twenty-one years, yet holding the rank, and performing the active 
services, of Major of one of the four grand military divisions of the 
Colony of Virginia. The combined excellences of his character had 
endeared him to all the subordinate officers of his command ; and when 
his appointment to the command of this expedition was known, there 
were warm hearts and willing hands in abundance ready and eager 
to accompany him. 

Fortified with written instructions, to which the great seal of the 
Colony was affixed, Washington departed from Williamsburg, the seat 
of government, on the 31st of October, 1753, and fourteen days after, 
with seven other men, and horses, tents, baggage, and provisions, they 
left Will's Creek, the extreme verge of civilisation. The distance 
they were obliged to travel through the forests and over the most 
rugged portions of the Alleghanies, was about five hundred and 
sixty miles; and yet so diligent and persevering was the commander, 
that they reached their place of destination on the 13th of December. 
M. de St. Pierre, the commandant of the fort, received them with 
great politeness, and treated Washington with all the distinction his 
position could claim. Washington delivered the letter of Governor 
Dinwiddie to him, and also communicated verbally the object of his 
mission. St. Pierre refused to come to any decision, — described 
himself as merely a military man, incompetent to decide on such an 
application, and expressed an opinion that the Marquis Du Quesne, 
the Governor of Canada, under whom he acted, was the proper 
person to be addressed. After two days, however, he gave Wash- 
ington a written answer to Governor Dinwiddie, and dismissed the 
conference. 

Washington, in the meanwhile, had not been idle. While the 
French officers were holding consultations and getting their reply 
ready, he secretly took the dimensions of the fort, and gathered such 
other information as he deemed useful. He had instructed his at- 
tendants to do the same, and thus they carried away with them 
information of much value. On the 16th of December he set out 
on his return, and after enduring many hardships, and encountering 
many perils from snow, fording of streams, and the Indians, he 
arrived safely at Williamsburg on the 16th of January following. 



chap, i.] COLONIAL WARS— TO 1763. 33 

Result of the Mission. Attack on the works of the Ohio Company. 

The letter of St. Pierre was found to contain a reiteration of the 
French claims to the territory in dispute, and a positive refusal to 
withdraw his troops ; with an assurance that he was acting in pur- 
suance of the commands of the Governor-General of Canada, whose 
orders alone he felt bound to obey. 

The positive yet courteous tone of the letter, and the active pre- 
parations for defence making upon the Ohio, placed the French in a 
position no longer doubtful. Moreover, the inferior officers at a 
frontier post, when heated with wine, after an evening entertainment 
given to Major Washington, declared with an oath, their absolute 
intention to take full possession of the Ohio. Governor Dinwiddie 
felt that immediate and vigorous preparations to resist their encroach- 
ments were necessary, and acted accordingly. The Ohio Company 
sent out an armed party of thirty men to construct a fort at the 
confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, a point ob- 
served by Washington, and by him strongly recommended as an 
eligible site for a fortification. Notwithstanding the necessity was 
great, yet the Assembly of Virginia was slow to make provision for 
an army. They finally appropriated fifty thousand dollars, and 
Carolina sixty thousand more ; and, after considerable effort, three 
companies of provincial troops were raised and placed under the 
command of Washington (now elevated to the rank of Colonel), and 
marched into the disputed territory. The news soon reached the 
Governor that the party sent out by the Ohio Company to erect a 
fort had hardly begun operations before they were attacked 
by the French, and driven from the ground. The enemy 
completed the work, and named the fort, Du Quesne. 

Washington pushed forward with his handful of daring men, at 
the same time he urgently called on the different States to contribute 
their quota of men and supplies for the common defence. As he 
approached the domain occupied by the French, he was informed by 
some Indians that a party of fifty men, under Jumonville, were on 
their march to intercept him. With a few chosen men and some 
Indians, he surprised them in their camp in the night, killed the 
commander and ten of his men, and wounded twenty-two 
more.* After erecting a small fort, which he named Fort 
Necessity, and being joined by some troops from New York and 
Carolina, Washington proceeded, with four hundred men, toward 
Fort Du Quesne. Learning that a large body of French and Indians, 
under the command of M. do Villiers, were on their march to meet 
him, he returned to Fort Necessity, which was soon after . , „ 

•f c July 3. 

attacked by the enemy, fifteen hundred strongs They made 
an obstinate resistance for ten hours, but were obliged to yield to 
3 



34 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [chap. i. 

Union Convention of the Colonies. Di. Franklin's Plan. 

• 

overwhelming numbers, and agreed to a capitulation, by the terms 
of which they were allowed to return to Virginia unmolest- 
ed." Notwithstanding this defeat, the campaign was highly 
approved of, and the House of Burgesses of Virginia passed reso- 
lutions of thanks to Colonel Washington and his officers. 

The colonists had now begun to feel that mutual co-operation 
against their powerful enemy was absolutely necessary, especially 
those Colonies that were more immediately exposed to attacks. 
Representations of the critical state of the Colonies having been 
made to the government at home, it was recommended to call a 
convention of delegates from the several States, to be held at Albany, 
New York, to concert with each other and with the Six Nations 
(whose friendship they desired to conciliate), some plan for repelling 
the enemy. The New England States, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
and New York, at once complied with this advice and appointed 
delegates, who met in convention at Albany in June, and after con- 
cluding a treaty with the Six Nations, on the 4th of July, 1754, the 
very day of the surrender of Fort Necessity, adopted a plan of gov- 
ernment and action, proposed by Dr. Franklin, a delegate from Penn- 
sylvania. 

Dr. Franklin was, at this time, one of the most influential men in 
the Colonies, and his discretion and sound judgment, exhibited in 
almost every matter of public interest in which he had been called 
to participate, had gained for him the unbounded confidence of the 
people of the States, as well as the government at home, which had 
conferred upon him the office of Postmaster-General. He was 
looked to as the leader in the convention, and his plan, though 
extremely bold, was at once adopted by a vote of all the delegates, 
except those from Connecticut. It proposed a general government, 
consisting of a President appointed by the crown, and a council 
chosen by the several Colonial Legislatures ; having power vested in 
them to levy troops, declare war, make peace, regulate trade with 
the Indians, levy taxes, and concert all other matters for the general 
safety and prosperity ; and their acts, if not disallowed by the king 
within three years, were to acquire the force of law. But this plan, so 
highly approved of in convention, met the singular fate of rejection, 
not only by the Colonial Legislatures when submitted to them, but by 
the British cabinet. The former objected to it, because it gave too 
much power to the President or Governor-General and his council, 
especially in the matter of taxation ; and the latter, because it 
gave too much power to the representatives of the people, and 
rendered America almost entirely independent.* In fact, it was 

* ** The Colonial Assemblies," says Franklin, " all thought there was too much 



chap, i.] COLONIAL WARS— TO 1763. 35 

Arrival of General Braddock. March toward Fort Du Quesne. 

looked upon in England, by sagacious minds, as an incipient step 
towards political independence, of which Britain was at times so 
jealous and alarmed ; and doubtless it had some influence in mould- 
ing the public mind for an affirmative on the question of submission 
or war, which a few years afterward they were called upon to 
decide. The plan of union having failed, Britain determined to 
carry on the war with her own troops, assisted by such aid as the 
Colonies might volunteer. 

In February, 1755, General Braddock arrived from Ireland with 
two regiments of troops, to co-operate with the Virginia force against 
the French on the Ohio. He came with the authority of command- 
er-in-chief of the British and colonial forces ; and at his request, 
the governors of five of the Colonies assembled at Alexandria, to 
concert the general plan of a campaign. Three expeditions were 
resolved upon ; one against the French at Fort du Quesne, to be led 
by Braddock himself ; a second against Niagara ; and a third against 
Crown Point, on the western shore of Lake Champlain. Washing- 
ton had left the army on account of a regulation, by which the 
colonial officers were made to take lower rank than those of the 
regular army ; but, at the solicitation of General Braddock, he con- 
sented to serve as his aide-de-camp, but as a volunteer. 

The expedition to be led by Braddock, was long delayed by the 
tardiness of the Virginia contractors to furnish the wagons necessary 
to transport baggage, arms and ammunition ; and in the meanwhile, 
an enterprise in the East was successfully carried out, 
under General Monckton, who sailed from Boston 4 with 
three thousand troops, and attacked the French settlements at the 
head of the Bay of Fundy. Several forts were taken, the planta- 
tions of the French settlers were desolated, and the miserable in- 
habitants, refusing to swear allegiance to the British crown, were 
driven at the point of the bayonet, on board the British ships, and 
dispersed in poverty among the English Colonies. 

Through the influence of Dr. Franklin with the farmers of Penn- 
sylvania, the necessary supplies were obtained, and on the tenth of 
June, Braddock set out from Fort Cumberland with a force of about 
two thousand men. The road across the Alleghanies was so rugged, 
that the movement of the arcny was very slow ; and it was evident 
that the French, apprised of their approach, would have ample time 
to strongly fortify Fort Du Quesne, and greatly increase the garrison. 

prerogative in it ; and in England it was thought to have too much of the democratic 
in it." Thirty years after, on reviewing this plan, it was Franklin's opinion that it 
was near the true medium. Its basis is very nearly the same as the Constitution of 
the United States. 



,'*6 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [chap. i. 

Sudden Attack, and Death of Braddock. Heroism of Washington. 

At the earnest request of Washington, it was determined to press 
forward with twelve hundred men, leaving the balance, under 
Colonel Dunbar, behind, to take charge of the artillery and baggage. 
As they approached the vicinage of the enemy, Washington desired 
to lead the provincials in advance, as they were much better 
acquainted with Indian warfare than the regular troops. But the 
pride and confidence in his own judgment and skill, deterred Brad- 
dock from listening to the advice of his aide-de-camp, and he pressed 
forward, regardless of the danger of surprise which he was 
warned against, until he arrived within nine miles of Fort Du 
Quesne. The garrison was understood to be quite small, and all 
hearts beat high with anticipation of speedy and signal victory. 
Early on the morning of the ninth of July, they proceeded toward 
the fort. A profound silence reigned in the wilderness ; no enemy 
was to be seen ; and having forded a small stream, they were pass- 
ing a woody and rough track by a path that led directly to the fort, 
when suddenly a most destructive fire opened upon them in front 
and on the right, from an invisible enemy. The van-guard fell back 
in confusion, and Braddock, instead of allowing his troops to rush 
behind the trees and into the ravines, where the enemy were con- 
cealed, formed them in platoons, in accordance with English disci- 
pline, and their bullets were wasted upon the trees and hillocks. 
The French and Indians kept up such an incessant fire from the 
ravines and trees, that a general flight of the regulars ensued. Gen- 
eral Braddock had three horses killed under him, and was finally 
mortally wounded, when the troops, seeing every mounted officer 
fall, except Washington, fled in dismay. The provincial troops 
were rallied by their intrepid leader, and covering the retreat of the 
regulars, saved the army from total destruction. In this defeat, 
more than two-thirds of all the officers and nearly half the privates, 
were either killed or wounded. How tangible was the hand of 
Providence in the salvation of Washington's life on that day ! Cap- 
tains Orme and Morris, the other two aides-de-camp, were disabled 
by wounds, and the duty of distributing the general's orders 
devolved on him alone. He rode in every direction, and was a con- 
spicuous mark for the enemy's sharp-shooters. " By the all-power- 
ful dispensation of Providence," said he, in a letter to his brother, " I 
have been protected beyond -all human probability or expectation ; 
for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under 
me, yet I escaped unhurt, although death was levelling my com- 
panions on every side of me."* 

* Sparks's Life of Washington (i. vol. ), page 64. Boston, 1844 



chap, i.] COLONIAL WARS— TO 1763. 37 

Flight of the British to Fort Cumberland. Expedition against Crown-Point. 

The enemy made no pursuit, as the Indians, satiated with blood, 
preferred to remain upon the battle-field, and the French were too 
few in number to venture to follow ; yet so great was the panic 
communicated to Colonel Dunbar's troops on hearing of the defeat, 
that disorder and confusion reigned ; the artillery and public stores 
were destroyed, no one could tell by whose orders, nor was tran- 
quillity restored, until they arrived safely within the walls of Fort 
Cumberland. Soon after, Colonel Dunbar, leaving a few troops at 
the fort, retired with the rest of the army to Philadelphia ; a 
and Washington, debilitated by sickness and fatigue, left the 
service and returned to Mount Vernon, followed by the blessings and 
esteem of the Colonies. 

While these events were transpiring in the West, a militia force of 
between five and six thousand men assembled at Albany, for an expedi- 
tion against the fortress of Crown Point, on the borders of Canada. 
The command was given to William Johnson, afterward Sir William 
Johnson, an Irishman of great bodily strength and energy of charac- 
ter, and who had acquired uncommon influence over the Indian 
tribes upon the Mohawk and its vicinity. In July, the troops were 
collected at the carrying-place between the Hudson River and Lake 
George, under General Lyman, the second in command, where a 
small fort was built, called Fort Lyman, and subsequently named 
Fort Edward. In the latter part of August, Johnson arrived, and 
learning that the enemy was erecting another fort at Ticonderoga, he 
resolved to push forward and reduce it before the work should be 
completed. But when arrived at the head of Lake George, intelli- 
gence reached him that Baron Dieskau, with nearly two thousand 
French and Indians, were on their march from Crown Point to attack 
Fort Edward. Johnson at once sent out a party of one thousand 
provincials under the command of Colonel Williams ; and two 
hundred Indians under the command of Hendricks, a Mohawk 
sachem, for the purpose of intercepting the return of the enemy. 
When within two miles of Fort Edward, Dieskau, at the request of 
his Indian allies, changed his route, and proceeded to attack the 
camp of Johnson. Although surprised, he gave the enemy a warm 
reception, and caused the Indians and militia to fall back. The 
French regulars maintained the contest for several hours, and John- 
son, being wounded, was obliged to yield the command to Lyman, 
his second. The French were finally repulsed with a loss of nearly 
one thousand men ; Dieskau himself was wounded and made 
piisoner. While feeling for his watch for the purpose of surrender- 
ing it, an English soldier, thinking he was searching for a pistol,, 
fired upon and killed him. 



38 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [chap. t. 

Erection of Forts at Oswego. Earl of Loudon Commander-in-Chief. 

General Johnson erected a fort at his place of encampment, and 
named it Fort William Henry. He was about to march toward 
Crown Point, when he learned that the French were strengthening 
that post, and greatly increasing the garrison at Ticonderoga. He 
therefore deemed it advisable, as the winter was approaching, to 
close the campaign ; and after leaving sufficient garrisons for Forts 
William Henry and Edward, he retired to Albany, and there dis- 
persed the remainder of his army to their respective 

a Dec. 

provinces. a 

During this campaign of Johnson, Governor Shirley of Massachu- 
setts (upon whom devolved the command-in-chief of the British 
forces, on the death of Braddock) led an expedition against Niagara ; 
but the difficulties of the march, the delay in the concentration of 
troops at Oswego, as concerted, the discouragement spread by the 
tidings of Braddock's defeat, sickness in the camp, and desertion 
of Indian allies, frustrated his designs, and nearly all the forces 
were withdrawn.* Two new forts that had been commenced 
' on opposite sides of the river at Oswego, were garrisoned, 
and the campaign terminated. 

Thus far, the war between France and Great Britain, carried on 
upon the ocean, as well as in America, had been permissory rather 
than declaratory, so far as the respective governments were con- 
cerned; but on the 17th May, 1756, war was formally declared against 
France by Great Britain, and within a month afterwards/ 
6 une ' the latter returned the compliment. Vigorous preparations 
were now made on both sides for the prosecution of the war in 
America. At a council of Governors held at Albany, plans similar 
to those adopted the preceding year, were matured and agreed upon ; 
and it was determined to raise from the various Colonies, twenty- 
one thousand men. Lord Loudon was appointed by the crown, 
commander-in-chief of all the forces in America ; but owing to 
necessary delay, General Abercrombie preceded him and took the 
command. Abercrombie arrived in June, but conceiving the force 
in readiness too small for the emergency, thought it prudent to await 
the arrival of the Earl of Loudon, which took place in July. But 
both officers seemed very inefficient, and their delays allowed the 
French time, not only to strengthen their own posts, but to attack 
those of the English. 

The French forces were united under Montcalm, a brave and 
high-spirited officer. In August, he crossed Lake Ontario with 
more than five thousand men, French and Indians, and with between 
thirty and forty pieces of cannon, attacked Fort Ontario, on the east 
d Aug. ii. side of the river at Oswego. d The garrison obstinately de- 



chap. i.J COLONIAL WARS— TO 1763. 39 

Expedition against Kittaning. Surrender of Fort William Henry. 

fended it for a few hours, but finding resistance useless, they 
safely retired to the old fort on the west side," when, finding 
their number reduced to fourteen hundred men, and their com- 
mander, Colonel Mercer, slain, they were forced to capitulate and 
surrender themselves prisoners of war. 6 One hundred and 
thirty-four pieces of cannon, with a large quantity of stores 
and ammunition, and several vessels in the harbor, fell into the 
hands of the enemy. After demolishing the forts, Montcalm returned, 
to Canada. 

In August of this year, Colonel Armstrong marched with three 
hundred men against Kittaning, the principal town of the Indians on 
the Alleghany River, to avenge the bloodthirsty acts of the savages 
subsequent to the defeat of Braddock. Incited by the French, they 
had killed, or carried into captivity, more than one thousand inhabit- 
ants of the frontier settlements. Armstrong took them by surprise, 
killed their principal chiefs, destroyed their town, and carried away 
eleven prisoners. But few of the English suffered in this 
expedition. Captain Mercer, afterward the brave General 
Mercer who was killed at the battle of Princeton, was slightly 
wounded. 

The commander-in-chief limited the plan of the campaign of 
1757, to an attempt to capture the fortress of Louisburg, and for this 
purpose he sailed on the 20th of June from New York, with six 
thousand regular troops, and on the 30th arrived at Halifax. Here 
he was reinforced by a naval armament under the command of 
Admiral Holbourn, and a land force of five thousand Englishmen, 
but learning that a lara;e French fleet had arrived, d and that 

d Aug. 4. 

the fort was very strongly garrisoned, he abandoned the en- 
terprise and returned to New York/ 

r e Aug. 31. 

In the meanwhile Montcalm collected his forces at Ticon- 
deroga, marched against Fort William Henry on Lake George, 
besieged it, and compelled it to surrender/ The garrison 
were allowed the honorable terms of marching out with the 
honors of war, and rejoining their countrymen ; but the treacherous 
Indians violated the stipulation and massacred a great number of 
them. It is maintained that Montcalm used all his endeavors to 
prevent the butchery ; but he was held responsible for the act, and 
there was accordingly aroused in the breast of the Colonies, a deep 
thirst for vengeance, that called for more vigorous measures against 
the enemy. 

It will have been perceived that hitherto disaster and disgrace 
had marked most of the operations against the French, especially on 
the part of the English officers and their troops. The political con- 



40 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [chap. j. 

Character of the British Cabinet. Capture and Surrender of Louisbnrg. 

tests for place, and the vacillating character of George II., now 
seventy years of age, prevented that vigorous and steady action of 
government, so necessary in times of general commotion, such as 
then convulsed Europe ; and the best interests of the nation were 
most shamefully neglected. George was surrounded, at this time, 
with very few really great men ; and his irascibility of temper con- 
trolling both his judgment and his actions, caused him to discard 
from office arid confidence, men unto whom the people looked for 
proper leaders, and filled his cabinet with men, such as the Old 
Duke of Newcastle, who could boast of little else that was noble, 
except the crest of a peer of the realm. These men flocked like 
vultures for prey, around the old king, clamorous for place and pen- 
sions for themselves and heirs ; and by their influence, such men as 
Pitt and Temple, really the best friends of the king and his realm, 
were driven from posts of honor and usefulness, because they stood in 
the way of titled ignorance and self-sufficient stupidity. Fortunately, 
the utter imbecility and timidity of the cabinet, when Pitt and Temple 
were dismissed, was so great, that the poor old king was left without 
an adviser on whom he could rely. He had been taught to hate 
Pitt, yet in his emergency he was induced to recall him, and at once 
new life and vigor were infused into the government. Adverse to 
the military operations in Germany, he turned his attention chiefly 
to the American Colonies, and this attention drew from them united 
and efficient exertions. The Earl of Loudon was recalled, and the 
command-in-chief was given to General Abercrombie, much the 
better officer of the two. 

It being concerted to strike the first blow at Louisburg, the rallying 
point of French power in that quarter, an expedition sailed against it 
from Halifax in May, 1758. The naval armament, consisting of 
nearly forty armed vessels, was under the command of Admiral Bos- 
cawen, and the land forces, twelve thousand strong, under command 
of General Amherst. On the 2d of June, the fleet anchored in Ga- 
barus Bay, and landed the troops on the 8th, when the French called 
in their outposts and dismantled the battery. On the 12th, General 
Wolfe completed a battery at the North Cape, by which the island 
battery was silenced, three French ships burned in the harbor, and 
the town fortifications much injured. On the 26th of July, the city 
and island, together with St. Johns, surrendered by capitulation. 

On the 5th of July, General Abercrombie embarked on Lake 
George, with about fifteen thousand troops and a formidable train of 
artillery ; and on the following morning, landed near the head of the 
lake, and commenced their march through the woods towards the 
fort at Ticonderoga, then defended by about four thousand troops 



chap. i. J COLONIAL WARS— TO 1763. 41 

Death of Lord Howe. Capture of Fort Frontenac. 

under the command of the Marquis Montcalm. The English 
troops soon became bewildered, in consequence of their ignorance of 
the country ; and the centre column, commanded by Lord Howe, 
falling; in with an advanced guard of the French," Lord Howe 

° , , r T a July 6. 

was killed ; but alter a severe contest, the enemy were re- 
pulsed. The death of Lord Howe, who was much beloved by all, 
threw the army into confusion, and they fell back to the landing- 
place ; but on the 8th they rallied in full force to attack the fort. 
After a contest of four hours and a loss of nearly two thousand men, 
Abercrombie was obliged to raise the siege, and retired to the head 
of Lake George. At the earnest solicitation of Colonel Bradstreet, 
an expedition of three thousand men, under that officer, was sent 
against Fort Frontenac, situated upon the present site of Kingston, 
at the outlet of Lake Ontario. He crossed the lake from 
Oswego, 6 and in two days compelled the fort to surrender. 

■vr- i i ii r i i b Au e- 25- 

In me armed vessels, and a large quantity ot stores and goods, 
was a portion of the reward reaped by the gallant soldiers. 

Early in July, General Forbes, at the head of nine thousand men, 
left Philadelphia on an expedition against Fort du Quesne. The 
French attacked an advanced party under Major Grant, and killed 
three hundred men ; but on the approach of General Forbes with 
the main body of the army, being deserted by their Indian allies, 
they precipitately fled from the fort, and escaped in boats down the 
Ohio. c Possession was taken of the fort the next day, and 

c Nov. 24. 

in honor of Mr. Pitt, the Prime Minister, its name was 
changed to Pittsburg.* The Indians from the West concluded a 
treaty of neutrality with the English, and the campaign of the year 
closed with more honor and substantial benefit to the English than 
any preceding ones. 

Pitt now conceived the bold design of conquering the whole of 
Canada in a single campaign. The sound judgment and skill dis- 
played by Amherst in the siege of Louisburg, gained from Parlia- 
ment a vote of thanks, and he was appointed commander-in-chief of 
all the forces in America ; while to General Wolfe, a young officer 
on whom Pitt greatly relied,! and who by his bravery distinguished 
himself at Louisburg, was assigned the most active part in the trans- 
actions on the St. Lawrence. 

* Now the site of a flourishing city. 

■f " The world," says Walpole, " could not expect from him more than he thought 
himself capable of performing. He looked on danger as the favorable moment that 
would call forth his talents." Of Lord Howe he also said," He was as undaunted as 
a rock, and also as silent; the characteristic of his whole race. He and Wolfe soon 
contracted a friendship like the union of cannon and gunpowder." — Memoirs of 
George II. 



42 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [chap. & 

Expedition against Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Niagara. 

As in former years, three expeditions were planned ; one under 
General Wolfe, who was to ascend the St. Lawrence and lay siege 
to Quebec ; the second under General Amherst, who was to attack 
Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and then by the way of Lake Cham- 
plain and the St. Lawrence, unite with the forces of Wolfe ; and a 
third, after the reduction of Niagara, was to proceed down Lake 
Ontario and the St. Lawrence and attack Montreal. 

On tne 22d of July, with a little more than eleven thousand men, 
Amherst reached Ticonderoga and prepared for a general attack ; 
but the French, after partially demolishing the fort, abandoned it, 
and returned to Crown Point, whither they were pursued by the 
English. This post they also abandoned and retired to Aux 
Noix, a a small island in the River Sorel. Amherst at once 
' ' constructed several small vessels, and with his whole army 
embarked in pursuit ; but in consequence of a series of heavy 
storms, and the lateness of the season, he returned to Crown Point 
and went into winter quarters. 

General Prideaux, who commanded the expedition against 

Niagara, proceeded thither by way of Oswego, and on the 6th of 

July, reached the fort and commenced the siege. Almost at the 

beginning of the attack, he was accidentally killed by the carelessness 

of a gunner, and the command devolved on Sir William Johnson, 

who, pushing operations with great vigor, effectually routed and 

defeated a large force which had been collected against him, 6 

' and finally compelled the garrison to surrender prisoners of 

war. c The capture and surrender of this important military 

post, effectually cut off all communication between Canada 

and Louisiana, and destroyed the power of the French west of 

Montreal. 

While these events were transpiring, General Wolfe was prose- 
cuting the most important part of the campaign on the banks of the 
St. Lawrence. He embarked his troops, numbering about eight 
thousand men, at Louisburg, and with a fleet of twenty-two ships of 
the line and as many frigates, under the command of Admirals 
Saunders and Holmes, proceeded up the St. Lawrence to the Isle 
of Orleans, a few miles below Quebec. The city at that time was 
strongly fortified in anticipation of an attack from the English ; and 
the French troops under Montcalm, amounting to about thirteen 
thousand men, occupied the city, and formed a strong camp on the 
north shore of the St. Lawrence. The troops under Wolfe had 
scarcely landed before a terrible storm blew down the river, driving 
several of their large ships from their anchors, making the transports 
run foul of each other, and swamping several boats. While in this 



chap, i.] COLONIAL WARS— TO 1763. 43 

Wolfe's attack on Quebec. Desperate situation of the English. 

confusion, the French sent seven fire-ships in the midst of the fleet, 
but the British sailors grappled them, towed them to the banks, and 
left them fast aground to burn, without injury to the English fleet. 

General Wolfe took possession of Point Levi, where, in de- 
fiance of the detachments sent against him by Montcalm, he 
erected batteries which afterward did great execution in the destruc- 
tion of the Lower Town. But the chief defences of the city were 
uninjured by this attack ; and on the 10th of July, he crossed the 
North Channel of the St. Lawrence, and encamped his whole army 
near the left wing of the enemy's forces, the river Montmorenci 
lying between them. The strong defences which nature, as with 
Gibraltar, afforded Quebec, together with the able fortifications of 
art, convinced Wolfe that batteries nearer than Point Levi must be 
brought to bear upon the city, before any impression could be made. 
But this appearing impracticable, he resolved upon a more daring 
scheme, and forthwith proceeded to put it into execution. He de- 
termined to cross the St. Lawrence and Montmorenci with different 
divisions at the same time, and storm the entrenchments of the French 
camp. 

On the 31st of July, the boats of the fleet filled with troops from 
Point Levi, and with grenadiers, under the command of General 
Monckton, crossed the St. Lawrence and effected a landing a short 
distance above the Montmorenci ; and Generals Townshend and 
Murray, fording that river near its mouth, hastened to their assist- 
ance. The French, in the meanwhile, had concentrated their artillery 
on the point menaced ; and, galled by their fire, the English grenadiers 
rushed tumultuously up towards the entrenchments, without waiting 
for the corps which were to sustain them and join in the attack. 
But the grenadiers were met by a fire too terrible for the bravest of 
them, and they fell back in confusion, after sustaining great loss, and 
sought shelter behind a redoubt which the enemy had abandoned. 
Night approached, a heavy thunderstorm set in, and the ominous 
roaring of the St. Lawrence — for the mighty tide was retiring — 
caused Wolfe to give up the attack and withdraw his troops. 

The situation of the English was now critical, and indeed 
desperate. More than a month after this failure, Wolfe in 
a letter to Pitt, confessed that he was driven to the extremity 
of calling a council of war ; and after saying that he had suffered 
by a fever, he adds — " I found myself so ill, and am still so weak, 
that I begged the General officers to consult together for the general 
safety. . . . We have almost the whole force of Canada to oppose 
us In this situation, there is such a choice of difficulties, that I 
own myself at a loss how to determine. The affairs of Great Britain 



44 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [chap. i. 

Wolfe's despondency. Scaling the heights of Abraham 

require the most vigorous measures ; but then the courage of a hand- 
ful of brave men should be exerted only where there is some hope 
of a favorable event." When this letter reached England it excited 
consternation and anger. Pitt feared that he had been mistaken in 
his favorite general, and that the next news would be either that he 
had been destroyed, or had capitulated. But in the conclusion of 
his melancholy epistle, Wolfe had said he would do his best ; and 
that best turned out a miracle of war. He declared that he would 
rather die than be brought to a court-martial for miscarrying, and 
in conjunction with Admiral Saunders, he concerted a plan for scal- 
ing the heights of Abraham, and gaining possession of the elevated 
plateau at the back of Quebec, on the side where the fortifications 
were the weakest, as the French engineers had trusted to the preci- 
pices and the river beneath.* 

The camp at Montmorenci was broken up, and the troops and 
artillery were conveyed to Point Levi ; and very soon after, the fleet 
sailed to some distance above the city. This movement deceived 
Montcalm into a belief that an attack from that quarter was medi- 
tated. On the night of the 12th of September, the troops in boats 
glided silently down the river, and all the French sentinels were 
passed without being alarmed. They landed within a mile and a 
half of the city, and. immediately commenced the ascension of the 
precipice. There was a French guard over their heads, and hearing 
a rustling noise, but seeing nothing, they fired at random down the 
declivity, while the British fired upward also at random. Terrified 
at so strange and unexpected an attempt, the French piquet fled, all 
but the captain, who was wounded and taken prisoner. The poor 
fellow begged the British officers to sign a certificate of his courage 
and fidelity, lest he should be punished for bribery, believing that 
Wolfe's bold enterprise would be deemed impossible without corrup- 
tion. When morning dawned, Wolfe with his little army, now- 
reduced to less than five thousand men, stood upon the heights of 
Abraham, in bold defiance of Montcalm and his overwhelming force. 

The French General at first could hardly credit his own senses, 
so impossible did it seem for an army to ascend those dangerous 
cliffs. He perceived that, unless the English could be driven from 
their position, Quebec was lost. " I see them," said he, " where 
they ought not to be ; but since we must fight, I will go and crush 
them !" and immediately, with his whole army, he crossed the St 
Charles and advanced to the attack. The English reserved their 
fire until the enemy were within a few yards of the front, and then 

* Pictorial History of England, vol. iv., page 609. 




sjdeM oiy ^ 




chap. I.] COLONIAL WARS— TO 1763. 45 

Death oC Wolfe and Montcalm, and surrender of Quebec. 

poured in a terrible discharge, which compelled them to recoil with 
great confusion. But as Wolfe stood conspicuous in the front rank, 
cheering his men, a musket ball struck his wrist. He wrapped a 
handkerchief around the wounded limb, continued giving his orders, 
and soon put himself at the head of his grenadiers, who had fixed 
their bayonets for the charge, when he was hit by a ball in the 
upper part of the abdomen. He seemed scarcely to heed this 
serious wound, and was giving his orders and encouraging his men, 
when a musket ball struck him in the breast and brought him to the 
ground. General Monckton, the second in command, was danger- 
ously wounded by his side, and the command devolved on General 
Townshend. Wolfe was immediately conveyed to the rear by his 
grieved men, and while the agonies of death were upon him, his 
mind was intently fixed upon the battle. As his life-blood ebbed 
fast, and his eyes grew dim, he heard a wounded officer near him 
exclaim, " See how they run !" The drooping head of the hero 
raised, and with eyes sparkling with new lustre, he eagerly inquired, 
" Who runs ?" " The French," replied the officer ; " they give 
way in all directions." " Then," said he, " I die content ;" and 
after giving an order for Webb's regiment to move down to the St. 
Charles and secure the bridge there, in order to cut off the enemy's 
retreat, he expired. Montcalm received a -mortal wound, and his 
second in command was made prisoner and conveyed on board an 
English ship. Five days after the battle, the city of Que- 
bec capitulated, and the disheartened remnant of the grand ° P ' 
army of the French retired to Montreal. The same despatch con- 
veyed to England, the intelligence of the unexpected victory on the 
heights of Abraham, the death of Wolfe, and the surrender of 
Quebec. 

General Murray, a brave and adventurous soldier, was left to 
defend the half-ruined town of Quebec, and the British fleet retired 
to escape being frozen up in the St. Lawrence. M. Levi, who had 
succeeded Montcalm, spent the winter in making preparations for a 
desperate effort to recover all that the French had lost, and early in 
the spring of 1760, he took the field with a mixed body of French, 
Canadians, and Indians, exceeding in all, ten thousand men. He 
marched from Montreal, and in April, when the weather was still 
inclement, he appeared before Quebec. General Murray, with 
scarcely seven thousand men, disdaining to wait a regular siege, 
marched out and attacked the enemy ; 6 but he was defeated, 
lost most of the guns he had taken out with him, was nearly 
cut off in his retreat, and got back to the city with great difficulty. 
As the ice cleared away, Levi brought up six French frigates, and 



46 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [chap. i. 

Capture and Surrender of Montreal. Treaty of Paris. 

began to form the siege by land and water. But on the 16th of May, 
Lord Colville, with two good frigates, outsailing the rest of the 
squadron, ascended the river and destroyed the French ships, under 
the eyes of Levi, who stood on the heights on the other side, but 
who presently decamped, and with such precipitation that he left his 
artillery and stores behind him. 

Nothing now remained to the French in Canada except Montreal, 
and that last stronghold, wherein the Marquis de Vandreuil, the 
Governor-general, had collected all his magazines, was soon invested 
by Generals Amherst and Murray, and Colonel Haviland ; and des- 
pairing of any succor from France, which could scarcely put a ship 
to sea, or spare a man from her wars in Europe, Vandreuil capitu- 
lated on the 8th of September. Thus were the Canadas won, and 
the conquest cost Great Britain but comparatively few men. This 
encouraged Pitt to call it a " bloodless war ;" but as he was con- 
quering America through Germany,* the blood spilt there was 
assuredly, in some measure, to be taken into the account ; and there 
the carnage was, and continued to be, unprecedented in modern 
war.f 

The conflict between England and France continued upon the 
ocean and among the West India Islands, with almost constant suc- 
cess to England, until 1763. On the 10th day of February of that 
year, a treaty of peace between the two countries was concluded and 
signed at Paris ; by which France surrendered to Great Britain all 
her possessions in North America eastward of the Mississippi River 
from its source to the River Iberville, and thence through Lakes 
Maurepas and Ponchartrain to the Gulf of Mexico. Spain at the 
same time ceded to Great Britain, her possessions of East and West 
Florida. Thus ended the famous " Seven Years' War," which had 
cost a million of lives, devastated no inconsiderable part of Europe, 
and carried carnage into all the four quarters of the globe. England 
was the greatest winner, and her noblest acquisitions were in 
America. Here she saw, not only her domain vastly expanded, and 
invaluable sources of wealth opened to her avaricious desires, 
but she rejoiced in the loyal adhesion to her throne of nearly three 
millions of people, ready to pour into her lap the treasures of peace- 
ful industry, or to lend willing hearts and strong arms in the defence 
of her territory and her fame. And well would it have been for her 
if she had rightly appreciated this noble possession, and wisely 

* George II. was, by inheritance from his father, Elector of Hanover, a petty 
sovereignty of Germany, and to maintain his right to this domain, cost an awful 
sacrifice of blood and treasure. 

f Pictorial History of England, vol. iv., page 614. 



chap, i.] COLONIAL WARS— TO 1763. 49 



General condition of the Colonies. 



cemented by generous kindness the bond of union between herself 
and her Colonies. But an all-wise Providence had otherwise decreed ; 
and the strange infatuation that subsequently caused British states- 
men to disregard the just rights of her colonial subjects, and to 
kindle a flame of discontent and rebellion in the hearts of her 
children, was the instrumentality that produced the conception and 
birth of this great Republic, the pride and glory of the earth. 

We have thus taken a cursory view of the most prominent events 
that transpired during nearly a century and a half, in a struggle for 
empire and territory in America, by the two leading powers of 
Europe. Our narrative has been necessarily very brief ; a little 
more than a general outline ; yet sufficient to develope the pro- 
gressive steps toward that point of self-sustaining confidence in their 
moral and physical resources, which distinguished the Colonies 
when they hurled the gauntlet of defiance at the feet of England, 
and proclaimed to the world the self-evident truth, that " All men 
were created equal ; that they are endowed with certain inalienable 
rights ; that among these is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness." 

At the period now under consideration, the Colonies were in a 
state of unexampled prosperity. In population and wealth, their 
increase was without a parallel in past history, nearly doubling in 
both in twenty years. They possessed a vast agricultural domain ; 
fertile, and yielding such returns to moderate labor, that none but 
the idle and vicious were companions of want. Those restrictions upon 
marriage, imposed both by law and necessity in the empires of the 
Old World, were here unknown, and youthful marriages were 
universal. This social condition, together with the influx of 
European emigrants, attracted hither by the freedom of the institu- 
tions and the easy acquirement of a competence for themselves and 
their children, were the springs of this rapid increase. 

In commerce, the progress of the Colonies was equally rapid, and 
excited the astonishment of Europe, and, in some degree, the 
jealousy of the mother country ; especially when the wings of that 
commerce sped to the ports of other nations. Yet the agricultural 
wealth which the Colonies poured into the lap of Great Britain in 
exchange for her fabrics, was grateful to her people, and when 
interest swayed her actions, she lent a helping hand in their pro- 
gressive career. But her avarice and ambition too often filmed her 
vision to her true interests ; and this political blindness led her into 
the monstrous error of oppressing her children ; children who 
regarded her with affection and reverence, and who never dreamed 
of leaving the paternal roof, until the unholy chastisements of a 



50 



THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 



[chap. I. 



Franklin's testimony concerning the feelings of the Colonies. 



parent's hand alienated their love, expelled them from the threshold, 
and compelled them to seek shelter and security behind the bulwarks 
of a righteous rebellion.* 

* " Q. What was the temper of America toward Great Britain before the year 
1703 ?" 

" A. The very best in the world. They submitted willingly to the government of 
the crown, and paid in their courts, obedience to acts of Parliament. Numerous as 
the people are in the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, 
garrisons, or armies, to keep them in subjection. They were governed by this 
country, at the expense only of a little pen, ink, and paper ; they were led by a 
thread. They had not only a respect, but an affection for Great Britain ; for its 
laws, its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly 
increased the commerce. Natives of Britain were always treated with particu- 
lar regard ; to be an Old England man, was, of itself, a character of some respect, 
and gave a kind of rank among us. 

" Q. And what is their temper now ? 

"A. Oh, very much altered." — Examination of Br. Franklin before the British 
House of Commons, relative to the repeal of the American Stamp Act. 




EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 




Benjamin Franklin— George Grenville— Patrick Henry. 



CHAPTER II. 




JP E now enter upon the consideration of 
a period in the history of the world, of 
intense interest — a period to which the 
annalists of the Past pointed prospectively 
with hopeful aspirations ; and towards 
which the chroniclers of the Future wiL 
look retrospectively with grateful bene- 
dictions upon their lips. It was a pe- 
riod dimly seen in the vista of the then future, of Plato and all 
succeeding political seers and sages, down to " Eutopian More ;" 
and it will ever be a period to which the enlightened statesman oi 



52 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1763. 

Principles for which the Colonists contended. 



the world will point the sceptic and the prophet of evil, bid him 
gaze upon the dawn of the New Era, and in its glorious light read the 
creed of faith in Human Progress, and believe in the mundane re- 
generation of man. 

Although amid the wild labyrinths of American forests, and along 
the stormy coasts of the Atlantic, the problem of political and social 
equality was patiently solved and demonstrated ; although the con- 
ception and birth of those mighty truths — taxation and equitable 

REPRESENTATION ARE INSEPARABLE GOVERNMENTS DERIVE THEIR 

JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED that had SO 

long reposed in the womb of Time, were brought forth ; although 
these, the Romulus and Remus of a new empire, were cherished by 
what the Iranian refinement of Europe would have defined the Wolf 
of the western world, yet the beneficent effects of that event are con- 
fined to no particular region ; they are the birth-right of humanity — 
their glory is the pride of the earth. The pure and fervent Spirit of Lib- 
erty gave vitality to these new manifestations of truth — it stood spon- 
sor at their baptism in blood — it rocked their cradle even at the foot 
of the throne — it panoplied them for the conflicts in which they are 
now engaged, and it will be chief mourner at their grave when the 
finger of Decay shall write their epitaph. 

In the preceding chapter we have noted the rapid progress of the 
English Colonies in the attainment of every constituent of national 
greatness, yet loyally expending blood and treasure for the main- 
tenance of the power and dignity of the British crown. We have 
seen them rushing to the battle-field and enduring every hardship, 
when the home government demanded their aid, and then patiently 
submitting to manifest wrong from the very hand their loyalty and 
prowess had strengthened. But there is a point beyond which 
endurance becomes no longer a virtue, and to that point the Colonies 
were at length driven. The British king, like Rehoboam, " forsook 
the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the 
young men that were brought up with him, that stood before him ;"* 
and in effect said to the Colonies, " whereas my father put a heavy 
yoke upon you, I will put more to your yoke : my father chastised 
"you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions."! And 
" when the people saw that the king would not hearken unto them," 
they took counsel among themselves, and a shout went up from every 
hill and valley, city and hamlet, mountain and plain from the rock of 
Plymouth to the lagoons of Florida, " To your tents, Oh Israel."t 

For a long period the colonists had endured, almost without a 

* 2 Chronicles x., 2. t Verse 11. J Verse 16. 



chap, n.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 53 

Navigation Act. Writs of Assistance 

murmur, various acts of oppression, neglect and insult, from the 
supreme government ; but as they were chiefly of a character that 
affected them commercially, they were easily kept from open oppo 
sition by the example of the narrow policy of commercial nations, 
which at that time prevailed. And yet it is surprising that they sub- 
mitted patiently so long ; for they were so far separated from Europe 
and the influence of its society, and had been so long accustomed to 
act with almost unrestrained wills in matters of legislation, regarding 
the assumption of the " divine right of kings" as preposterous and 
logically untenable, that we would naturally look npon them as the 
readiest to repel encroachments upon their political and civil rights. 

As early as 1651 the enactments of parliament, in reference to the 
commercial policy of the Colonies (and particularly the colony of 
Virginia, that had at times evinced a refractory spirit), were really 
oppressive and unjust in the extreme. The Navigation Act adopted 
and put in force that year, and confirmed and extended in 1660, struck 
a paralysing blow at the infant commercial navy of the Colonies. It 
declared that no merchandise of the English plantations should be 
imported into England in any other than English vessels, thus bene- 
fiting English shipping ; and, for the benefit of English manufactur- 
ers, it prohibited exportation from the Colonies, and the introduction 
from one colony into another, of hats, and woollens of domestic 
manufacture : forbade hatters to have at one time more than two 
apprentices ; prohibited the importation of sugar, rum, and molasses, 
without the payment of exorbitant duties ; forbade the erection of 
certain iron works, and the manufacture of steel ; and prohibited the 
felling of pitch and white-pine trees, not comprehended within inclo- 
sures.* 

In 1733, parliament enacted laws imposing duties upon sugar, 
molasses, &c. ; yet, these revenue laws were administered with so 
much laxity, that the payment of the duties was for many years 
evaded, and the statute openly violated, without incurring the serious 
displeasure of the home government. To a certain extent, the British 
monopoly of the commerce of the Colonies was nominal ; and, so 
long as the latter were allowed to carry on a lucrative contraband 
trade unmolested, they were of course disposed to regard the statute 
as a very harmless thing. But British cupidity at length aroused 
British jealousy on this point, and, in 1761, attempts were made to 
enforce the tariff act, by the requisition, from the colonial courts, of 
general search-warrants, entitled " writs of assistance." These 
writs authorized the officers of the king to search for articles sus- 

* Willson's United States, page 195. 



54 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1763. 

Excitements in Boston. Grenville made Premier. 

pected of having been introduced into the Colonies withont the pay- 
ment of the required duties. The merchants generally did not dispute 
the right of parliament to enact these revenue laws affecting the 
Colonies, but they justly complained of the violent and illegal manner 
in which they were frequently enforced by the government servants. 
These oppressive measures increased, and at length became so 
onerous, that open resistance was resolved upon. In Boston, violent 
excitements prevailed ; a applications for writs were met by 
the bold opposition of the people, encouraged by the fearless 
voice of Otis, and others, who denounced these oppressions as un- 
worthy of a civilized nation, and especially of a nation holding the 
relation that Great Britain did to her Colonies. Respectful remon- 
strances were unnoticed by the king and his ministers, or, if noticed 
at all, called forth more stringent measures. The entire subservience 
of the Colonies, and the unqualified right of the government to legis- 
late for, and to tax them, was so much the universal sentiment in 
Great Britain, that, according to Pitt, " even the chimney sweepers 
on the streets talked boastingly of their subjects in America !"* The 
admiralty undertook the labor of enforcing the laws, in strict accord- 
ance with the letter, and intrusted the execution thereof to the com- 
manders of vessels, whose authoritative habits made them the most 
unfit agents for such a service, and against such a people. Vessels 
engaged in the contraband trade were seized and confiscated, and the 
colonial commerce with the West Indies was nearly annihilated. 
These events caused the colonists to ponder seriously ; and their 
minds were opened, perhaps for the first time, to the importance of a 
state of Independence. 

By successive changes in the British ministry, George Grenville, 
who for some time fought shoulder to shoulder with Pitt in the par- 
liament, but had forsaken him to hold office under Bute, succeeded 
to the premiership, becoming at once First Lord of the Treasury and 
Chancellor of the Exchequer. Grenville is represented as " an 
honest statesman, of great political knowledge and indefatigable ap- 
plication ; but his mind, according to Burke, could not extend beyond 
the circle of official routine, and was unable to estimate the result 
of untried measures."! He found an empty treasury — drained by 
the vampire appetite of War ; and his first care was to devise means 
to replenish \i.% The English people were seriously complaining of 

* Parliamentary Debates. t Murray. 

% The budget of 1764 exhibited an expenditure hitherto unprecedented, having 
a deficiency of about three millions sterling, which was with difficulty supplied by 
temporary resources and by encroachments on the sinking fund. — Adolphus's His- 
tory of England, vol. i., p. 159. 



chap, n.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 55 

Proposed Stamp Tax. The bill presented and postponed. 

the heavy burden of taxation resting upon them, and he feared to 
increase its weight. Influenced by what to him appeared an unques- 
tionable right, he resolved to tax the American Colonies for the sup- 
port of the government. He knew their capacity to pay a certain 
revenue, he believed it right that they should pay it, and, in the face 
of all the hostility then manifested by the Colonies to the oppressive 
enactments of parliament, he introduced into the House a series of 
resolutions" respecting new duties to be laid on foreign goods a March 
imported by the Americans. These resolutions passed with 10 ' 1764- 
little notice, General Conway being the only member who opposed 
them, and on the 5th of April the bill received the royal assent. He 
also proposed raising a direct revenue from the Colonies in the shape 
of a stamp-tax, but that scheme was at the time withdrawn, with the 
intimation that it would be again brought forward at the earliest 
opportunity. On the 19th of April, the king prorogued parliament, 
and expressed his hearty approval of the measures proposed ; deno- 
minated them wise regulations, calculated to augment the public 
revenues, to unite the interests of his most distant possessions, and 
to encourage and to secure their commerce with Great Britain. The 
country gentlemen congratulated themselves on the pleasing prospect 
of a diminution of the land-tax, and no class seemed aware of the 
mighty mischief set in motion by these measures.* 

On the 5th of May, Mr. Grenville proceeded to bring in an act 
for imposing the proposed stamp-duty, but assured the agents of the 
Colonies, with whom he conferred on the matter, that it was not his 
intention to push the measure through that session, but to give them 
an opportunity to reflect upon it and adopt that, or any other mode 
of raising the required sum of £l00,000.f The strange apathy 
which prevailed in England upon this subject, caused the adoption 
of the resolutions in the House of Commons with scarcely a dissent- 
ing voice. It was then postponed, at the suggestion of the mover, 
until the next session. 

But it was an inauspicious moment for the "gentle Shepherd "| 
to bring forward his bold proposition for shearing the great flock on 

* Pictorial History of England, vol. v., p. 34. 

t Pitkin, vol. i., p. 163. 

| In the famous debate on the " Cider Bill," George Grenville contended that the 
money was wanted, that government did not know where to lay another tax; and, 
addressing Mr. Pitt, he said, " Why does he not tell us where we can levy another 
tax ? " repeating, with emphasis, " Let him tell me where — only tell me where !" 
Pitt, though not much given to joking, hummed in the words of a favorite song, — 
" Gentle Shepherd, tell me where !" The House burst into a roar of laughter, and 
christened George Grenville the Gentle Shepherd. — Fictorial History of the 
Reign of George III., vol. i., p. 34. 



56 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1764. 

Indian Depredations. Discontent of the Colonies. 

this side of the Atlantic. In addition to the manifest injustice of 
this measure, the Colonies were suffering severely from the recent 
cruelties of the Indians on the frontier. On quitting Canada, the 
French government had not broken off all connexion with the In- 
dians ; and partly through the encouragements of their agents, and 
partly through some encroachments made by the English upon their 
hunting grounds, the Indian nations or tribes flew to arms with the 
intention of making a combined attack on all the settlements, in 
harvest-time. In some places their secret was betrayed, and their 
movement anticipated ; but they fell like a flight of locusts upon 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, plundering, burning, and 
destroying, till the frontiers of those three provinces were left bare 
and void of inhabitants. The Indians also surprised and captured 
several British forts in Canada, and massacred the weak and unsus- 
pecting garrisons they found in them. Their flying parties also 
intercepted and butchered detachments of troops that were marching 
from place to place, plundered and murdered the traders who were 
up the country, and cut off the communication between the interior 
and the sea-port towns. When attacked by small bodies of English 
troops, who trusted to their discipline for an easy victory, they dis- 
played, not only courage, but considerable military skill, which seems 
to prove that French officers or soldiers had been among them. 
They defeated Captain Dalzel near Fort Detroit, and killed that 
unfortunate officer ; they attacked Colonel Bogart, and forced him 
to abandon his baggage and the supplies he was carrying to Fort 
Pitt (late Fort Du Quesne) ; and, near the Falls of Niagara, they 
surrounded an escort and slew about eighty men and officers. For- 
tunately, Sir William Johnson was able to detach the tribes of the 
Six Nations of Indians from the confederacy, and induce them to 
join the British against the other Indians. After various skirmishes 
and surprises, the savages submitted to conditions, or retired further 
into the depths of their native forests. 

The greater part of these calamities had befallen the Colonies in 
the summer and autumn of the preceding year (1763); but the 
recollection of them was recent, and the losses that had been sus- 
tained were making themselves more and more painfully felt, when the 
Grenville propositions arrived. Every citizen, moreover, was armed 
in defence of his home and his property against the Indians ; and 
when men have muskets in their hands, and in their hearts the 
certainty that their quarrel will become a general one, they are not 
likely to limit themselves to murmur and complaints, petitions and 
remonstrances. The colonists loudly proclaimed that to interrupt 
their trade, such as it was, with the Spanish Main, would be depriv- 



chap, ii.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 57 

Action of the Colonial Assemblies. Franklin appointed Colonial Agent 

ing them of their best resources ; that it was unreasonable for the 
king and parliament of Great Britain to convert themselves into 
guardians and protectors of the jealous, exclusive, anti-commercial 
system of Old Spain ; and that it was monstrously unjust for them 
to impose taxes upon a people who were not, and could not, be repre- 
sented in parliament.* 

In all the colonial assemblies wherein the subject was acted upon, 
they asserted the claim to the sole right of imposing taxes upon their 
fellow citizens. They maintained, that recent duties on goods had 
materially encroached on this right ; that if they once submitted to 
the right of the mother country to tax them, there was no possibility 
of fixing the limit to the exercise of it in relieving the British subject 
at home by casting the burden upon the Americans. New England 
passed strong resolutions of remonstrance, and forwarded earnest 
petitions to the king to pause ; and several of the other States, par- 
ticularly Virginia and New York, adopted the same course in firm 
but respectful language, and placed foremost in their catalogue of 
just causes for complaint, the violation of that fundamental principle 

" TAXATION AND REPRESENTATION ARE INSEPARABLE." They 

demonstrated that the Colonies were neither actually nor virtually 
represented in the British parliament ; they declared that they had 
hitherto supposed that the assistance which Great Britain had given 
them was offered from motives of humanity, and not as the price of 
their liberty ; and if she now wished a remuneration, she must make 
allowance for all the assistance she had received from the Colonies 
during the late war, and for the oppressive restrictions she had im- 
posed upon American commerce. They plainly told Great Britain, 
that, as for her protection, they had full confidence in their own ability 
to protect themselves against any foreign enemy. 

These remonstrances and petitions were transmitted by the Colo- 
nies to their agents in London, with full instructions to oppose to the 
utmost as far as opportunity should offer, the adoption of any and all 
of these oppressive measures. Pennsylvania appointed a new agent, 
and chose for that responsible duty, Benjamin Franklin, who at that 
time possessed more influence in America than any other man. A 
better choice could not well have been made. He was well known 
in England as a man of great sagacity and sound common sense, and 
he was almost as popular there as at home. The ability with which, 
on a former occasion, as agent for several of the Colonies, he had 
managed a difficult case before the Privy Council, gained for him 
the respect and confidence of ministers, and politicians of every party ; 

* Pictorial History of the Reign of George III., pp. 35-6. 



58 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1765. 

The Stamp Act submitted to Parliament. Opposition of Colonial Agents. 

so that when he appeared in London, with full instructions to oppose 
every scheme for taxing the colonies without their consent, he was 
consulted by Grenville ; and his opinion of the hopelessness of the 
Americans ever submitting to the arbitrary mode of taxation proposed 
by that minister, was received with great deference, and doubtless 
stayed for a time the execution of the plan. 

Notwithstanding the murmuring of the Colonies, and the strong 
opposition they had already manifested, when parliament was 
assembled early in 1765," the king, in his opening speech, 
alluded to the subject of American taxation and American discon- 
tents ; and, regardless of the tangible portents of a gathering storm, 
recommended the carrying out of Grenville's scheme, and the en- 
forcing obedience in the Colonies. Encouraged by this recommend- 
ation, Mr. Grenville in February* brought his Stamp Act be- 
fore parliament ; and then attempted to conciliate the Ameri- 
cans through their agents, by offering to drop the proposed stamp 
tax, if they, on their part, would contribute about an equal sum in 
any other way more acceptable to themselves. To this offer, Frank- 
lin and the other agents replied, as they had done the previous year, 
that they were instructed to oppose that act, and any other that 
assumed as a principle, the right to tax the Colonies without their 
own consent. They contended that " in the course of the last me- 
morable contest large sums had been repeatedly voted by parliament 
as an indemnification to the Colonies for exertions which were allowed 
to be disproportionate to their means and resources ;* that the proper 
compensation to Britain for the expense of rearing and protecting her 
Colonies was the monopoly of their trade, the absolute direction and 
regulation of which was universally acknowledged to be inherent in 
the British crown."t But the king and his cabinet determined not to 
yield an iota of assumed right ; and the British Legislature, by its 
vote on the resolutions of Grenville, evinced that it either considered 
the right indisputable, or of little moment. Even Pitt, the professed 
friend of the Colonies, who had been known to harangue the house 
in flannels and upon crutches, in defiance of gout and fever, upon a 
subject of far less importance than this, was absent when the debate 
and vote upon the resolutions of Grenville and others took place. % 

* In the first year of the reign of George III. the sum of one million of dollars 
was voted to the Colonies ; and a similar vote passed subsequently, but the money 
was never paid. 

f History of the Reign of George III., vol. i., page 36. 

\ His excuse was, an attack of the gout, but his enemies accuse him, and with 
some show of justice, of purposely withholding his warning and potential voice, in 
ord>3r that his political adversaries might take the fatal step, — he not caring for the 
humiliation of his country, nor for the miseries to be inflicted on humanity, provided 



chap, ii.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 59 



Apathy of Parliament. Speech of Colonel Barre. 

Fifty-five resolutions were agreed to by the Commons and incor- 
porated into an act for laying nearly the same stamp-duties on the 
American Colonies as were payable at the time in England. Strange 
to say, that this measure, destined to be the entering wedge for the 
dismemberment of the British empire, called forth in parliament what 
Burke termed " the most languid debate" he ever heard. A fatal 
delusion, or rather a fatal ignorance of American affairs, seemed to 
pervade both the parliament and the cabinet. Even the intelligent 
Horace Walpole, who was in the House reporting everything of 
moment to the Earl of Hertford, devoted but a single paragraph of a 
few lines, to the debate that day on American affairs. Indeed, Wal- 
pole confessed his total ignorance of American affairs. Yet there 
was a voice lifted up in defence of the colonies on that day 
that proved awfully prophetic — there was a mind in that Legis- 
lature that comprehended the magnitude of the subject before them 
— there was a heart that beat in unison with the strong pulsations of 
the oppressed ; and that voice, and mind, and heart, belonged to 
Colonel Barre, who had served his king in the armies of America, 
and who well knew the country and the people. When Charles 
Townshend, the most eloquent man in the Commons, in the absence 
of Pitt, ventured, in support of the Stamp Act, to declare that the 
Americans were very ungrateful, being " children planted by our 
care, and nourished by our indulgence," Barre indignantly burst 
forth ; — " They planted by your care ! No ! your oppression planted 
them in America — they fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated 
and inhospitable wilderness, exposed to all the hardships to which 
human nature is liable. They nourished by your indulgence ! No \ 
they grew by your neglect of them ; your care of them was displayed, 
as soon as you began to care about them, in sending persons to rule 
over them who were the deputies of deputies of ministers — men 
whose behavior on many occasions has caused the blood of those 
sons of liberty to recoil within them — men who have been promoted 
to the highest seats of justice in that country, in order to escape being 
brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own. I have been 
conversant with the Americans, and I know them to be loyal indeed, 
but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them if 
ever they should be violated ; and let my prediction of this day be 
remembered, that the same spirit of freedom which actuated that 
people at first, will accompany them still /" But this prediction, 
uttered with all the earnestness of truth, was unheeded, and fell upon 
the ears of British statesmen like the feeble intonating of distant 

the hostile administration were rent in pieces, and the powers of the crown thrown 
again at his feet. 



60 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1765. 

Royal Signature to the Stamp Act. Virginia Resolutions. 

thunder, fearful in its character but harmless in present effect. Pe- 
titions presented by English merchants trading with the Colonies, as 
well as those from the Colonies themselves, and their agents resident 
in London, were treated with contempt ; and the parliament seemed 
to verify the ancient heathen maxim, that "whomsoever the gods decree 
that they will destroy, they first deprive of reason." In the House, 
there was only one division, and the act passed by a majority of two 
hundred and fifty to fifty ; and in the Lords with scarcely any oppo- 
sition.* On the 22d of March the king joyfully gave his assent, and 
the Stamp Act — the ever memorable Stamp Act became law.f 

Franklin had repeatedly warned ministers and members of parlia- 
ment to beware how they multiplied causes for discontent in the 
Colonies.! He now told them again that the Americans would 
never submit to the operations of the Stamp Act ; and events that 
immediately transpired proved the truth of his assertions. When 
the news reached America, it excited indignation and general alarm. 
Bold patriots denounced it as an iniquitous scheme to enslave the 
Colonies, while timid men viewed it with trembling presentiments of 
long years of trouble and desolation. The tone of feeling manifested 
in the provincial assemblies, and in primary meetings of the people, 
portended the gathering storm of opposition, and it was not long 
before it became a perfect hurricane. Virginia, which had ever been 
a loyal Colony, yet always jealous of her liberty, took the lead in the 
demonstrations of defiance, and in a series of resolutions introduced 
into the House of Burgesses on the 30th of May by Patrick Henry, 
first hurled the gauntlet at the feet of the British king.$ The first 
of these resolutions declared that the original settlers of the Colonies 
brought with them and transmitted to their posterity, all the privileges, 
franchises, and immunities, enjoyed by the people of Great Britain. 
The second affirmed that these privileges, &c, had been secured to 

* Mr. Grenville, at a subsequent period, said, in the House of Commons, " I did 
propose the Stamp Act, and shall have no objections to have it christened by my 
name. There was only one division in the committee against it, and not a single 
negative-in the House of Lords. It is easy to give an ex post facto judgment, but 
of all who acted with me in the government, I never heard any one prophecy that 
the measure would be opposed. After the event prophecy is very safe. The 
Honorable Colonel Barre did indeed say, that he knew not what anger it might 
cause in America." — Cavendish's Debates. 

f See note I., Appendix. 

\ On the very night the Act was passed, Doctor Franklin wrote to Charles Thom- 
son, who was afterwards Secretary to Congress, " The Sun of Liberty is set ; the 
Americans must light the lamps of Industry and Economy." To which Mr. Thom- 
son replied, " Be assured we shall light torches of another sort," thus predicting 
the convulsions that would follow. 

§ They were drawn up on the blank leaf of an old volume of " Coke upon Little- 
ton." — Wirt. 



chap, ii.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 63 

Debate in the Virginia House of Burgesses. 

the aforesaid colonists by two royal charters granted by King James 
The third asserted that taxation of the people by themselves, or by 
persons chosen by themselves, was the distinguishing characteristic 
of British freedom, and without which the ancient constitution could 
not subsist. The fourth maintained that the people of Virginia had 
always enjoyed the right of being governed by their own Assembly 
in the article of taxes, and that this right had been constantly recog- 
nised by the king and people of Great Britain. The fifth resolution, 
in which was summed up the essentials of the preceding ones, de- 
clared " That the General Assembly of this Colony have the sole 
right and power to levy taxes and imposition upon the inhabitants of 
this Colony ; and that every attempt to vest such power in any other 
pereon or persons whatsoever, other than the General Assembly 
aforesaid, has a manifest tendency to destroy British, as well as 
American, freedom." 

The introduction of these resolutions was like the fall of a thun- 
derbolt within that Assembly ; and when the first shock had subsided, 
many who afterwards were distinguished patriots, sprang to their 
feet in opposition to them ; and all the eloquence of such men as 
Randolph, Pendleton, Bland, Wythe, &c, was employed to crush 
them ; not because they were not in unison with their sentiments, 
but they felt them to be premature and too bold. Yet, after a stormy 
debate, in which the eloquence of Henry was most powerfully 
brought forth,* they were carried ; the latter by a majority of one. 
The impulse here given, went through the Colonies like an electric 
spark — the whole country was aroused to action — timid spirits 
became bolder — similar resolutions were generally adopted, and 
the great point of resistance to British assumption of power to tax 
the Colonies without their consent, was everywhere established. Ex- 
pressions of sentiments of high regard were everywhere heard, 
coupled with the names of Pitt, Conway, Barre, and other members 
of the British House of Commons, who had boldly lifted their voices 
in defence of American Rights ; and the freeholders of Boston 

* " It was in the midst of this magnificent debate, while he was descanting on 
the tyranny of the obnoxious Act, that he exclaimed, in a voice of thunder, and 
with the look of a god: ' Csesar had his Brutus — Charles the First his Cromwell — 
and George the Third' — [Treason! cried the Speaker] — treason, treason, echoed 
from every part of the House. It was one of those trying moments which is deci- 
sive of character. Henry faltered not for an instant ; but, rising to a loftier alti- 
tude, and fixing on the Speaker an eye of the most determined fire, he finished the 
sentence with the firmest emphasis — ' and George the Third — may profit by their 
example. If that be treason, make the most of it.'" — Wirt's Life of Patrick 
Henry, 



64 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1765. 

Massachusetts Circular Letter, proposing a Congress. 

passed a formal vote of thanks to the two latter gentlemen, and 
ordered their portraits for Faneuil Hall. 

Early in 1765, the Corresponding Committee of the New York 
Assembly (appointed in October, 1764) proposed the holding of a 
Congress of Delegates from the several Colonies, in the city of New 
York. This proposition was repeatedly agitated, until at length the 
a June 7 Assembly of Massachusetts addressed the following circular 

1765 - letter to the Speakers of all the provincial assemblies : — 

" Boston, June, 1765. 

" Sir : The House of Representatives of this Province, in the 
present session of general court, have unanimously agreed to pro- 
pose a meeting, as soon as may be, of committees from the House 
of Representatives or Burgesses, of the several British Colonies on 
this continent, to consult together on the present circumstances of 
the Colonies, and the difficulties to which they are and must be re- 
duced by the operation of the Acts of Parliament, for levying duties 
and taxes on the Colonies ; and to consider of a general and united, 
dutiful, loyal and humble, representation of their condition to his 
Majesty and to the Parliament, and to implore relief. 

" The House of Representatives of this Province have also voted 
to propose that such meeting be at the city of New York, in the 
Province of New York, on the first Tuesday in October next, and 
have appointed a committee of three of their members to attend 
that service, with such as the other Houses of Representatives or 
Burgesses, in the several Colonies, may think fit to appoint to meet 
them ; and the Committee of the House of Representatives of this 
Province, are directed to repair to the said New York, on the first 
Tuesday in October next, accordingly ; if, therefore, your honorable 
House should agree to this proposal, it would be acceptable that as 
early notice of it as possible might be transmitted to the Speaker of 
the House of Representatives of this Province." 

This circular was received by the several representative bodies to 
whom it was addressed, with tokens of unqualified approbation, and 
its suggestions were speedily acted upon by the appointment of dele- 
gates. Meanwhile, the excitement against the Stamp Act, which 
was to go into operation on the first of November ensuing, became 
universal. True, there were some men — men of sterling worth, 
who viewed the matter in the same light as did the British parliament, 
and endeavored to quiet the turbulence and discontent by appeals to 
loyalty ; but such men were comparatively few, and daily decreasing 
in numbers. Popular speakers — men of wealth, reputation, and 
commanding talents, were daily pouring patriotic eloquence into the 



chap, n.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 65 



Meeting of the first Colonial Congress. 



ears of excited throngs in every part of the country ; at town-gather- 
ings and other assemblies, resolutions were adopted expressive of the 
strongest feelings of indignation ; and in view of the oppressive 
operation of the Stamp Act when practically in force, the hearts of 
the American people seemed to beat as one with deep pulsations of 
patriotic resistance. 

In the midst of this general popular ferment, the First Colonial 
Congress assembled at New York on the first Monday in 
October." This being somewhat earlier than the meeting of 
some of the Colonial Assemblies, thereby preventing them from 
appointing delegates, it was agreed, by the adoption of a rule, to 
admit as delegates several committees of the Members of Assembly 
from such Colonies. Under this rule New York was represented 
by the corresponding committees, at whose suggestion, some months 
previous, Massachusetts sent forth her circular letter. Nine of the 
thirteen Colonies were represented ; and the Assemblies of New 
Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, who did not send 
delegates, wrote that they would agree to whatever was done by the 
Congress. 

What a sublime moral spectacle was that meeting of the first 
Colonial Congress ! There were convened the representatives of 
many distinct communities — as politically distinct as were the Gre- 
cian Republics, yet actuated by one sentiment — the assertion of 
human equality — the maintenance of the glorious franchisements of 
freedom — positive and uncompromising resistance to wrong and 
oppression. ** The more this subject is investigated, the more obvi- 
ous will become the fact, that the American Revolution was essen- 
tially a wider diffused, a more general impulse, enlisting not only a 
greater number of distinct communities, independent of each other, than 
had hardly ever been associated before, but that the proportion of 
individual, personal participation, a participation in which individual 
judgment was called into requisition, and individual responsibility 
incurred, had seldom been equalled. It was no momentary impulse 
— no burst of passion."* This incipient step was, not the reckless 
leap of hot-headed fanaticism into the arena of an aimless contest, 
but it was the result of cool deliberation, and its object was the high- 
est political destiny of man. This first Congress, although so remote 
from the stirring scenes of the Revolution proper, may be considered 
the fountain spring of that convulsion — the " ovum rei-publica" 
— truly the egg of our republic. 

The Congress was organized by the election, by ballot, of Timothy 

* Niles's Register. 



THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 



[1765. 



Doings of the Congress 



Riot in Boston 



Ruggles of Massachusetts, Chairman, and the appointment of John 
Cotton, Clerk.* It continued in session fourteen consecutive days, 
and adopted a Declaration of Rights ;* a Petition to the King, 
and a Memorial to both Houses of Parliament.! 

At the close of the session, all the delegates except Mr. Ruggles 
of Massachusetts, and Mr. Ogden of New Jersey, affixed their sig- 
natures of approval to the proceedings. The deputies from three of 
the Colonies, not having been authorized by their respective assem- 
blies to apply to the King and Parliament, did not sign the petition 
and memorial ; but subsequently all the Colonies, by the votes of 
their respective assemblies, approved of the measures then adopted. 

On the arrival of the first cargo of stamps and stamped paper, 
prompt and energetic action succeeded threats, and in the various 
cities where they were landed, popular tumults ensued. Boston 
seemed to be the grand centre of these convulsions. The mob 
formed an effigy of Mr. Oliver, the Stamp-Master, and hung 
it up on a tree," and the sheriff, who was ordered to take it 
down, declared that the sacrifice of life would be the price of the 
undertaking. At evening twilight it was carried to the town house, 
where the government council was assembled, and in bold defiance 
of their authority, the mob raised three loud huzzas. They then 
took the effigy to the front of Oliver's house, where, after having cut 
off its head, they burst open his door, declaring their intention to 
murder him. But Mr. Oliver had escaped, and was obliged to keep 

* On the opening of the session the following delegates appeared with their cre- 
dentials and took their seats : — From 



Massachusetts, 

James Otis, 
Oliver Partridge, 
Timothy Ruggles. 

New York, 

Robert R. Livingston, 
John Cruger, 
Philip Livingston, 
William Bayard, 
Leonard Lispenard. 



Rhode Island, 

Metcalf Bowler, 
Henry Ward. 

Pennsylvania, 

John Dickenson, 
John Morton, 
George Bryan. 



Connecticut, 

Eliphalet Dyer, 
David Rowland, 
William S. Johnson. 

Maryland, 

William Murdock, 
Edward Tilghman, 
Thomas Ringgold. 



South Carolina, 

Thomas Lynch, 



New Jersey, Delaware, 

Robert Ogden, Thomas McKean, 

Hendrick Fisher, Caesar Rodney. Christopher Gadsden, 

Joseph Borden. John Rutledge. 

f The Declaration of Rights was penned by John Cruger, delegate from New 
York. He was at that time Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, and Mayor of the 
city of New York. The Petition to the King was written by Robert R. Livingston, 
also a member from New York. 
X See note II. , Appendix. 



chap, ii.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 67 

Further Riots in Boston. Tumults in other places. 

concealed to avoid the ire of the populace. The next morning, to 
save his life, he resigned his office ; and to prevent a successor, 
whenever any one was named as such, a day was fixed for burning 
his house ; and a bonfire was lighted in front of it amid cries of 
" liberty and property." 

On the twenty-sixth of August, the mob proceeded to still greater 
extremities, demolishing the dwellings of the Registrar-deputy and 
Comptroller of the Customs, and attacking the residence of the 
Governor. He would doubtless have been murdered by them, had 
he not escaped after much persuasion by his family. The populace 
rushed in with furious threats of murder, and at once began the de- 
struction of everything that came within their reach. The Governor 
had a fine library, containing many important manuscripts illustrative 
of the early history of the Colony from its first settlement. This was 
not spared, but was totally destroyed. Plate, rings, money, and 
other valuable articles bestrewed the street the next morning, show- 
ing that a desire for plunder had no share in the motives that impelled 
the people. These acts were disgraceful in the extreme, when 
viewed superficially ; but when we consider the intense feeling of an 
uneducated mass, as were the majority of the actors in these scenes, 
aroused by appeal after appeal to their passions by men eminent for 
virtue and patriotism, we ought to view their conduct with much 
charitable allowance. 

On the morning after the proceedings at the Governor's house, 
the mob seemed to have fresh energy for further outrages ; and the 
principal inhabitants, seeing the entire city threatened with destruc- 
tion, proceeded to the Governor, and offered to restore order and the 
dominion of law, provided no penal proceedings should be held on 
account of the first tumult, which was directed solely against the 
stamps. These conditions were very humiliating to the haughty 
Governor, but he was forced to make a virtue of necessity, and 
yielded. 

In New York and Philadelphia similar tumults prevailed, although 
less violent. In the former city the people armed, attacked the fort, 
where the stamps were lodged, and the commander, to preserve 
them, placed them in the hands of the magistrates, who in their turn 
were obliged to yield to popular indignation, and allow the obnoxious 
articles to be destroyed. 

Although these lawless proceedings were chiefly confined to the 
lower class of the population, yet the more enlightened and influen- 
tial class of citizens were pressing forward to the same righteous 
goal, but in a different, a more dignified way. The Virginia resolu- 
tions fired the eastern leaders with renewed zeal, and in several 
5 



69 


THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 


[1765. 


The sons of Liberty. 




Popular commotions. 



places societies were formed whose members styled themselves 
" Sons of Liberty." They at length formed a powerful combination 
throughout the Colonies. They denounced the Stamp Act as a 
flagrant outrage on the British constitution ; resolved to defend the 
liberty of the press at all hazards ; and solemnly pledged their lives, 
fortune and honor in defence of those who, in the exercise and main- 
tenance of their rights as freemen, should become the objects of 
British tyranny and injustice. 

The merchants of the sea-port towns entered into engagements 
with each other not to import goods from Great Britain until the 
Stamp Act should be repealed. Patriotic individuals and families 
ceased the use of foreign luxuries ; articles of domestic manufacture 
came into general use, and the trade with Great Britain was almost 
entirely suspended.* 

When the first of November arrived (the day on which the obnox- 
ious act was to go into operation), a strange spectacle was presented 
to the world. According to the terms of the Act, no legal business 
could be transacted without the use of the stamped paper ; and as the 
people had solemnly resolved not to use it, business was for a time 
entirely suspended. " The courts were closed ; marriages ceased ; 
vessels were delayed in the harbors ; and all the social and mercan- 
tile affairs of a Continent stagnated at once."t 

At Boston the colors of the shipping were hoisted half-mast ; the 
bells tolled, the shops were shut, effigies of the royalists were carried 
about in derision and torn in pieces. At Portsmouth the bells tolled, 
a coffin was made, on the lid was inscribed " Liberty, aged 145," 
and with unbraced drums, and minute guns, a procession followed it 
to the grave. At the close of an oration, the coffin was taken up, 
signs of life appeared in the corpse, " Liberty revived," was sub- 
stituted, the bells rung merrily, and joy lighted every countenance. 
At Philadelphia, the people spiked the guns on the ramparts of their 
defences ; and at New York the obnoxious act was printed with a 

* In 1709, when similar agreements were entered into, Washington, alluding to 
the subject in a letter to a friend, remarked ; " We have already, it is said, proved 
the inefficiency of addresses to the throne, and remonstrances to Parliament. How 
far, then, their attention to our rights and privileges is to be awakened or alarmed, 
by starving their trade and manufactures, remains to be tried. The northern Colo- 
nies, it appears, are endeavoring to adopt this scheme. In my opinion it is a good 
one, and must be attended with salutary effects, provided it can be pretty generally 
carried into execution." Washington subsequently entered into such an agreement, 
and was scrupulous in observing it. When he sent his customary annual orders to 
London for goods to be used in his family, he strictly enjoined his correspondents to 
forward none of the enumerated articles, unless the offensive acts of Parliament 
should in the meantime be repealed. — Sparks's Life of Washbigton, pp. 109-10. 

f Willson, p. 199. 




Parade of the Stamp Act, in New York. P. 



chap, ii.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 71 

Tumults in New York and other places. Rockingham Ministry. 

skull and cross-bones instead of the royal arms, and contemptuously 
paraded through the streets under the title of " England's Folly and 
America's Ruin." A tumult occurred in Newport, R. I., and seve- 
ral obnoxious citizens were hung in effigy. At Providence also, 
similar acts prevailed ; and a gazette extraordinary was published 
there, with the words " Vox populi, vox Dei," in large letters at its 
head, and underneath, " Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is 
liberty. — St. Paw/." In Connecticut, Ingersoll, the principal Stamp 
officer, was ordered to relinquish his office or suffer consequences 
which he could very well anticipate. Similar instructions were 
given to the Stamp officers in New Hampshire, Maryland and Caro- 
lina. A paper published in Boston, called " The Constitutional 
Courant ; containing matters interesting to Liberty, and nowise 
repugnant to Loyalty," had for its frontispiece the representation of a 
serpent, cut into eight pieces ; .on the part of the head, were the 
initials of New England ; and on that of the body, the initials of the 
other Colonies as far as South Carolina ; and over it " Join or Die," 
in large letters. In Virginia, the notaries, attorneys, and justices of 
the peace declared that their functions had ceased ; that they were 
unwilling to use the stamps, and thus be instrumental in inflicting a 
wrong upon the people. Firm, but respectful resistance on the part 
of the better class of the citizens, and wild and tumultuous defiance 
on the part of the uneducated populace, spoke plainly the universal 
sentiment against the Stamp Act and its practical results, and through- 
out the entire domain of the English provinces this ferment was 
visible. 

In the meanwhile a change of ministry occurred, and the Marquis 
of Rockingham, an honorable and liberal statesman, took the place 
of Grenville. General Conway was one of the Cabinet, and Edmund 
Burke was the Premier's private secretary. Other men of liberal 
views were his counsellors, and a faint hope of better things under 
the new administration shed its light upon the Colonies, and, for a 
time, in a measure allayed the general excitement. But the king, 
doubtless really ignorant of the temper and true character of the 
Americans, was not easily conciliated in their favor, and hence the 
new ministry found it difficult to depart from the course marked out 
by Grenville towards the Colonies. In fact the subject still appeared 
too unimportant to call forth extraordinary exertions, notwithstanding 
the voice of popular tumult and discontent was borne to England 
upon every breeze from America. Parliament did not meet until the 
17th of December, and then was almost immediately adjourned un- 
til after the Christmas holidays. In his speech, the King mentioned 



72 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1766. 



Debates in Parliament on the Stamp Act. 



incidentally, that something had occurred in America which might 
demand the serious attention of the legislature. 

Parliament re-assembled on the 14th of January a and the 

a 1766. . J 

King informed the Houses that no time had been lost on the 
first advice of disturbance in America, to issue orders to the Govern- 
ors of the provinces, and to the commanders of the forces there, to 
use all the powers of the government in suppressing riots and tumults, 
and in the effectual support of British authority. When the debates 
upon American affairs occurred, Pitt was in his place, and nobly did 
he use his eloquence in defence of the Colonies, and the position they 
assumed on the subject of legal taxation. After expressing his re- 
gret that sickness compelled him to be absent when Grenville's reso- 
lutions were adopted, and censuring ministers for delay in giving 
notice of the disturbances, he proceeded to vindicate the Americans. 
" The Colonists," said he, " are subjects of this kingdom, equally 
entitled with yourselves to all the natural rights of mankind, and the 
peculiar privileges of Englishmen ; equally bound by its laws and 
equally participating in the constitution of this free country. The 
Americans are the sons, not the bastards of England. Taxation is 
no part of the governing or legislative power. Taxes are the volun- 
tary gift or grant of the Commons alone When, therefore, in 

this House we give and grant, we give and grant what is our own. 
But in an American tax, what do we do ? We, your Majesty's 
Commons for Great Britain, give and grant to your Majesty, what ? 
our own property ? No ; we give and grant to your Majesty the 
property of your Majesty's Commons of America. It is an absurdity 
in terms." 

Mr. Grenville, with whom the fatal Stamp Act originated, attempt- 
ed to show that there was nothing wrong in the act itself, but that 
all the difficulty had occurred through the mismanagement of those 
who had succeeded him in office. He agreed with Pitt in censuring 
ministers for delay in noticing the disturbances in America. " They 
began," said he, " in July, and now we are in the middle of Janua- 
ry ; lately they were only occurrences, they are now grown to dis- 
turbances, to tumults and riots. I doubt they border on open rebel- 
lion ; and if the doctrines of this day be confirmed, that name will be 
lost in revolution." Expressing his inability to perceive the distinction 
attempted to be made by Mr. Pitt, he said, " When I proposed to tax 
America, I repeatedly asked this House if any objection would be 
made to the right ; but no one attempted to deny that right. Pro- 
tection and obedience are reciprocal. Great Britain protects Ame- 
rica : America is bound to yield obedience. If not, tell me when the 
Americans were emancipated ? When they want the protection of 



chap, ii.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 73 

Speech of Mr. Pitt. His proposition to repeal the act. 

this kingdom they are always ready to ask for it : that protection has 
always been afforded them in the most full and ample manner. The 
nation has run itself into an immense debt to give them protection ; 
and now, they are called upon to contribute a small share towards the 
public expense — an expense arising from themselves — they renounce 
your authority ; insult your officers, and break out, I might almost 
say, into open rebellion." Fixing his eyes intently upon Pitt, he 
exclaimed with great emphasis, " The seditious spirit of the Colonies 
owes its birth to factions in this House. Gentlemen are careless of 
the consequences of what they say, -provided it answers the purposes 
of opposition. 1 '' 

When Grenville ceased speaking, several members sprang to their 
feet, and among them was Pitt. There was a loud cry of " Mr. Pitt, 
Mr. Pitt," and all but he sat down. He immediately fell upon 
Grenville, and told him that since he had challenged him to the field, 
he would fight him on every foot of it. " The gentleman tells us," 
said he, " that America is obstinate, America is almost in open 
rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of 
people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit 
to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the 
rest." Alluding to the alleged strength of Great Britain and the 
weakness of America, he said, " It is true, that in a good cause, on 
a good ground, the force of this country could crush America to 
atoms ; but on this ground, on this Stamp Act, many here will think 
it a crying injustice, and I am one who will lift up my hands against 
it. In such a cause, your success would be hazardous. America, 
if she fall, would fall like the strong man : she would embrace the 
pillars of the State and pul ldown the Constitution along with her."* 
The orator concluded with an appeal to the House to exercise wis- 
dom and moderation in their dealings with America, and in the 
words of Prior begged them — 

" Be to her faults a little blind : 
Be to her virtues very kind." 

He then proposed an absolute, total, and immediate repeal of the 
Stamp Act ; but recommended at the same time to accompany the 
repeal by the strongest declaration of the sovereign authority of 
Great Britain over her Colonies. His views were seconded by 
Rockingham, Conway, Burke, and nearly all the rest of the admi- 
nistration ; and the petitions of the mercantile classes and others 
against the Stamp Act, which had been so haughtily rejected by 

* History, Debates, &c, of the British Parliament, vol. iv., pp. 292-7. 



74 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1766. 

Repeal of the Stamp Act. Mr. Pitt's Declaratory Act 

Grenville, were now welcomed and honored. In a short time a re- 
pealing bill was presented by ministers. 

It was at this time that the genius of Edmund Burke was first 
developed ; and it is asserted by Dr. Johnson that his two speeches 
on the repeal of the Stamp Act, " were publicly commended by Mr. 
Pitt, and filled the town with wonder." Pitt, Conway, Barre and 
Burke, were the chief advocates of the repeal in the House of Com- 
mons, and Lord Camden in the House of Peers. After being six 
weeks in committee, the repeal bill was passed* by a large 

aMarchia .... f . riir 

majority of the very men who, but a tew months before, were 
almost unanimous in favor of the Stamp Act.* As a sort of salvo to 
the national honor, the bill, pursuant to Pitt's recommendation, was 
accompanied by a declaratory act, which affirmed that parliament 
had power to bind the Colonies in all cases whatsoever. This de- 
claration seemed to imply the right of taxation ; and, in a great 
measure, destroyed the intended effect of the repeal bill. Yet, with- 
out this appendage to soothe and conciliate the opposite party, the 
repeal bill could not have received a constitutional majority ; but with 
this suffix, many were content to support the measure as a matter of 
expediency ; and the majority in both Houses was considerable — in 
the Commons one hundred and eight, and in the Lords, thirty-four. 
Thirty-three peers entered a strong protest, stating therein, that after 
the declaration of power and authority already made, " such a sub- 
mission of King, Lords and Commons, in so strange and unheard-of 
a contest" would amount to an entire surrender of British supremacy.! 

Yet it was done — the royal assent was reluctantly given, and 

a March 18. , - , . J . J ° 

the act of repeal became law. a 

The passage of this act was the source of great joy both in Eng- 
land and America. The manufacturers, and the friends of America 
in London, made great demonstrations of gratification. Many houses 
were splendidly illuminated, and the shipping in the Thames dis- 
played their colors. 

When the news of the repeal reached America, a thrill of joy and 
satisfaction pervaded the whole population ; the ominous mutterings 
of the suppressed volcano of defiance and rebellion ceased, and 
everywhere were heard the plaudits of a truly grateful people. Bu- 
siness at once resumed its wonted activity ; the importation of British 

* It was during these debates that the celebrated examination of Dr. Franklin 
before the British Parliament took place. His celebrity as a philosopher, states- 
man, and man of candor, roused the attention of every mind. The galleries were 
crowded with spectators eager to hear so distinguished an individual speak upon a 
subject of so much moment. 

t History, Debates, &c, vol. iv., 343. 



chap, ii.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 75 

Rejoicings in the Colonies. New causes of discontent 

goods was revived ; the sails of commerce were unfurled, and the 
whole social and political horizon became radiant with light. The 
House of Burgesses of Virginia voted an appropriation to erect a 
statue to the King ; the Assembly of Massachusetts addressed a 
memorial of thanks to Parliament ; public thanksgivings were held, 
and the furious storm that had raged for months, and threatened to 
uproot the British constitution, was succeeded by a profound calm 
which might have been permanent, had no subsequent acts of 
oppression excited to action the energies of a righteous resistance. 

But this calm was of short duration. The declaratory act, re- 
garded as harmless, contained the germ of other oppressions no less 
serious and unjust, and it was not long before the Colonies perceived 
the development of the bud, and they at once resorted to measures to 
prevent its expansion. They were soon convinced that the repeal 
bill was but a truce in the war upon American freedom; and they 
speedily began to erect defences and prepare for another conflict. 

Considerable trouble arose in the adjustment of the claims of the 
sufferers by the late disturbances. Compensation was demanded by 
General Conway in mild but firm language ; but the people, while 
they did not absolutely refuse to adjust these claims, were very back- 
ward in the liquidation of them. They were offended at the haughty 
manner in which, in many instances, these claims were demanded. 
In Massachusetts in particular, the requisitions of Governor Bernard 
were made so peremptorily, that the people, irritated, refused to pay, 
and tumult was threatened. After a long delay, the measure of 
compensation was agreed to by the Assembly of Massachusetts, and 
also of New York, but it was accompanied by a general pardon of 
all concerned in the riots. 

Another cause of discontent and alarm was a new clause in the 
Mutiny Act,* which the Colonies viewed as disguised taxation in the 
form of a relief of burden from the shoulders of the home govern- 
ment. The clause provided that the troops sent out from England 
should be furnished with quarters, beer, salt, and vinegar, at the 
expense of the Colonies. This tax the people could easily have 
paid, and it would have been but a comparatively light burden, but 
the same principle was involved in this as in the Stamp Act. Be- 
sides, the soldiers were insolent and overbearing toward the citizens ; 
they were known to be quartered here for the purpose of abridging 
and subduing the independent action of the people, and the supplies 

* The Mutiny Act granted power to every officer, upon obtaining a warrant from 
any justice, to break into any house, by day or by night, in search of deserters. 
This ostensible purpose was often used by unprincipled officers for the consumma- 
tion of designs not contemplated by the Act. 



76 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1766. 

Dissolution of the Rockingham Ministry. Charles Townshend 

demanded were to be drawn from the very men whom they came to 
injure and oppress. In New York, where the Act first came into 
operation, the Assembly refused to issue orders for its enforcement.* 
In other Colonies likewise, a spirit of resistance was again aroused, 
as strong and formidable as was evinced against the Stamp Act. 

In the month of July, the Rockingham ministry, which, at its 
formation, seemed so united and promised such beneficial results 
from its labors, both to England and America, as to attract the 
anxious scrutiny of the friends and foes of popular freedom, was 
suddenly dissolved, and a new one formed under the direction and 
control of Mr. Pitt, who, by an act of special favor of the King was 

, , m elevated to the peerage," with the title of Earl of Chatham. 

a July 30. . . ° 

The King intrusted to him the absolute privilege of choosing 
a cabinet agreeable to his own inclinations, the result of. which was 
to the surprise of all, a most curious medley of discordant elements, 
in which neither party could place confidence. " He made an ad- 
ministration so chequered and speckled," said Burke ; " he put 
together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dove- 
tailed ; a cabinet so variously inlaid ; such a piece of diversified 
mosaic ; such a tesselated pavement without cement ; here a bit of 
black stone, and there a bit of white ; patriots and courtiers, King's 
friends and republicans ; whigs and tories ; treacherous friends and 
open enemies ; that it was indeed a very curious show, but utterly un- 
safe to touch, and unsure to stand on. The colleagues whom he had 
assorted at the same boards, stared at each other, and were obliged to 
ask, Sir, your name ? — Sir, you have the advantage of me — Mr. 
Such-a-one, I beg a thousand pardons. I venture to say it did so 
happen, that persons had a single office divided between them, who 
had never spoken to each other in their lives, until they found them- 
selves they knew not how, pigging together, heads and points, in the 
same truckle-bed. "t Indeed all parties were astonished at the want 
of sound judgment displayed by Pitt in the formation of his cabinet, 
and forebodings of evil agitated the minds of men both friendly and 
inimical to him. The attacks of gout, which so frequently incapa- 
citated him for public business, rendered it quite certain that to a 
great extent, the cabinet would be ruled by other minds, of less 
strength and necessary forecast than his own. 

Nor were these presentiments vain speculations. While the Earl 
of Chatham was confined at Hayes, his country-seat, by sickness, 
Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, in the 
absence of his Lordship, assumed to be the head of the administration, 

* Speech on American Taxation. f Pitkin, vol. i., p 215. 



chap, ii.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 77 

Duties levied on Glass, Paper, Painters' Colors, and Tea. Board of Trade 

coalesced with Grenville, the former Premier, and father of the Stamp 
Act, in the production of another scheme for taxing America. 
Townshend introduced a bill into Parliament," imposing du- a M 
ties on glass, paper, painters' colors, and tea. A similar 1767 - 
proposition, by which the Colonies were to be taxed to the amount 
of four hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum, had been sub- 
mitted by Grenville as early as January ; but at that time, Mr. Towns- 
hend considered the measure impolitic, in consequence of the 
excited state of the Colonies. But now, impelled by inordinate 
vanity, he made the hopeless attempt of pleasing the most opposite 
parties, and pledged himself to the House to find a revenue in the 
Colonies sufficient to meet the wants of government. During the 
brief discussion of Townshend's bill, Mr. Pitt was absent, and there 
appeared the same apathy, the same profound ignorance of American 
character that was exhibited when the Stamp Act was submitted 
to the Legislature, and it passed rapidly through both Houses, with 
only here and there a voice of opposition. There were, however, a 
few who regarded, the matter in its true light, and calculated the 
chances of a general insurrection in the Colonies, if any more attempts 
should be made to tax them without their consent. " In the Massa- 
chusetts government in particular," wrote Gerard Hamilton to Mr. 
Colcraft, " there is an express law, by which every man is obliged 
to have a musket, a pound of powder and a pound of bullets always 
by him ; so there is nothing wanting but knapsacks (or old stock- 
ings, which will do as well) to equip an army for marching, and 
nothing more than a Sartorius or Spartacus at their head, requisite to 
beat your troops, and your custom-house officers, out of the country, 
and set your laws at defiance." Lord Shelburne warned ministers 
to have a care how they proceeded in the matter, and endeavored to 
impress Parliament with the deep consideration with which the 
subject should be viewed. But these notes of warning fell powerless 
upon prejudiced ears, — the bill received a large majority vote, and on 
the twenty-ninth of June the royal signature was affixed. 

This act was immediately succeeded by another, establishing a 
Board of Trade in the Colonies, independent of Colonial legislation, 
and creating resident Commissioners of Customs to enforce strictly 
the revenue laws. And still another act was passed, prohibiting the 
Governor, Council, and Assembly of New York from passing any 
legislative act for any purpose whatsoever, and totally suspending the 
legislative power till satisfaction should be given as to the treatment 
of the King's commissioners, and full obedience rendered to the pro- 
visions of the Mutiny Act, by furnishing the royal troops with cer- 
tain supplies, at the expense of the Colony. 



78 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1767. 

Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer. Massachusetts Circular. 

When intelligence of the passage of these acts reached America, 
all the powerful elements of opposition so strongly manifested two 
years before when the Stamp Act received the royal sanction, were 
again aroused ; and to unqualified denunciations were added bold 
denials of any legislative authority of Parliament over the Colonies. 
Everywhere the voice of oratory aroused the people to action ; whilst 
the silent, yet powerful appeals of printed addresses scattered the 
seeds of rebellion within almost every household in America. Among 
the most powerful of these were the " Letters of a Pennsylvania Farm- 
er," from the pen of John Dickenson, of Philadelphia. These letters, 
twelve in number, were published during the summer and autumn of 
1767, and their effect upon the destinies of our country is incalculable. 
Like the " Crisis " of Paine, they formed and controlled the will of 
the people, and gave efficiency to the right arm of action. The 
object of the letters was, to arouse the attention of the country to the 
illegality of British taxation, and to the necessity of adopting vigorous 
measures to induce the mother country to retrace her steps of op- 
pression. In a style of great vigor, animation and simplicity, he 
portrayed the unconstitutionality of the conduct of Great Britain, the 
imminent peril to American liberty which existed, and the fatal con- 
sequences of a supine acquiescence in ministerial measures, more 
fatal as precedents, than by the immediate calamities they were cal- 
culated to produce. The Farmer's Letters were read with intense 
interest, and produced the effect not merely of enlightening the pub- 
lic mind, but of exciting the feelings of the people to a determination 
not to submit to the oppressive exactions of the mother country.* 

Spirited resolutions were promptly adopted by the Colonial As- 
semblies, denouncing the acts of Parliament in unqualified terms of 
disapprobation. New associations, pledged to support domestic 
manufactures, and to cease the use of British goods, were formed, 
and commerce with the mother country was almost entirely suspended. 

Early in January, 1768, the general Assembly of Massachusetts 
convened, and one of its first acts was to draw up a petition to the 
King, asserting in decided yet mild and courteous terms the right of 
not being taxed without their own consent. They then took a 
bolder step, one that most of all displeased the British ministry ; 
they addressed a circular to all the other Colonies, embodying 

a Feb. , J . , . . . . , t/- 

the same sentiments expressed in the petition to the iving, 
and inviting the co-operation of their several respective Assemblies. 
As soon as intelligence of this measure reached England, Lord Hills- 
borough sent instructions to Bernard, then Governor of the Massa- 

* American Portrait Gallery, vol. iii. 



chap, ii.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 79 

Resistance of the Massachusetts Assembly. Arrival of the Sloop Liberty. 

chusetts Colony, to call upon the general Assembly to rescind its 
resolutions, and, in case of non-compliance with the demand, to dis- 
solve them. 

But these instructions, instead of intimidating the Assembly, gave 
fresh grounds for complaint, and additional cause for discontent ; and 
in* June, that body, by a vote of ninety-two to seventeen, refused to 
rescind,* adhered strenuously to their past proceedings, and passed 
resolutions denouncing these very instructions as another attempt to 
restrain the right of free deliberation, guaranteed by the constitution. 
The Governor, finding the threat of ministers of no avail, proceeded 
to dissolve the Assembly ; but before the act was accomplished, that 
body had prepared a list of serious accusations against him, and a 
petition to the King for his removal. 

Counter circulars were sent by government to the several Colonies, 
warning them to beware of imitating the factious and rebellious con- 
duct of Massachusetts ; but they entirely failed to produce the in- 
tended effect. On the contrary, the sympathies of the other Colonies 
were awakened for proscribed Massachusetts, and nearly all cordially 
approved of the proceedings had in her general Assembly ; and some 
indignantly repelled this fresh attempt to dictate to them and influ- 
ence their proceedings by the overshadowing of government power. 
At Boston, the chief point of resistance to British tyranny, causes for 
discontent and increased irritation of feeling were almost daily de- 
veloped. 

In May, the Commissioners of Customs arrived, and at once 
proceeded to the execution of their duties — duties as odious in the 
eyes of the people as were those of the Roman tax-gatherers of 
Judea in the days of Claudius Cassar. 

Early in June" the sloop Liberty, belonging to John Han- 

* i i i • , T a. June 10. 

cock, one of the most zealous and popular patriots of JNew 
England, arrived at Boston with a cargo of Madeira wine. The 
Commissioners sent an excise officer on board, but the skipper con- 
fined him below deck, and landed the wine on the dock, without 
entering it at the custom house, or the use of any other formula. 
The officer was then released and sent ashore. The next morning 
the Commissioners ordered a Comptroller to seize the sloop and clap 
the King's broad arrow upon her. A crowd immediately assembled 
at the wharf, and the Commissioners, fearing violence, made signals 

* The following was the answer the House sent the Governor : — " If the votes of 
this House are to be controlled by the direction of a minister, we have left us but a 
vain semblance of liberty. We have now only to inform you that this House have 
voted not to rescind, and that on a division on the question, there were ninety-two- 
yeas and seventeen nays " 



80 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1767. 

Seizure of the Liberty. Tumult in Boston 

• ■ — 

to the Romney man-of-war, then lying at anchor at Boston, and the 
captain manned his boats and sent them to assist the excise officer. 
Malcolm, a bold smuggler, at the head of a mob of boys and negroes, 
attempted to prevent the seizure of the sloop, and pelted the exciseman 
and the sailors with stones and dirt ; but the crews of the boats soon 
cut the sloop from her moorings and towed her under the guns of the 
Romney. The mob on shore became very violent ; attacked the 
houses of the Commissioners, beat several of the officers severely, 
and burned a custom house boat. The Commissioners applied to 
the Governor for protection, but he was obliged to tell them that he 
had no force whatever to defend them ; and they, becoming alarmed 
for the safety of their lives, fled on board the Romney, and subse- 
quently took quarters in Castle William, a fortress on an island of 
that name nearly three miles south-east from Boston, and at the 
entrance of the harbor. 

These lawless proceedings were strongly condemned by the 
Assemblies (although their feelings and sympathies were with the 
cause which the mob espoused), and they even invited the govern- 
ment to prosecute the ringleaders. Such a proceeding, however, 
would have had no beneficial result, for it would have been next to 
impossible to have found a jury to convict, such was the general 
excitement of the people against the government officers. 

Governor Bernard, alarmed at these bold, tumultuous acts, and 
determined to uphold the authority of the British crown, right or 
wrong, took the greatly unwise step of introducing British troops into 
Boston to overawe the inhabitants and to protect the Commissioners 
of Customs in the discharge of their duties. At the request of the 
Governor,* General Gage, then Commander-in-chief of all the British 
forces in America, ordered two regiments, amounting to about seven 
hundred men, from Halifax, to be quartered at Boston. The first 
rumor of this contemplated outrage raised an extraordinary ferment, 
not only in Massachusetts, but throughout all the Colonies. At Bos- 
ton a town meeting was immediately called, and when convened, a 
committee was appointed,! who waited upon the Govornor to 
ascertain the truth of the report, and request him to convene the 
Assembly. The Governor did not deny the fact, that troops were 
about to be thrown into Boston, but declared that he was unable 

* Previously, however, to this request being made, and even a month or six weeks 
before the news of these Boston riots could have reached London, ministers had re- 
solved to use force ; and Lord Hillsborough, in a secret and confidential letter, had 
told General Gage that it was his Majesty's pleasure that he should forthwith send 
from Halifax one regiment or more to Boston, to be quartered in that town-, to assist 
the civil magistrates and the officers of revenue. 

f James Otis, John Hancock, John Adams and Samuel Adams. 



CHAP.n.J EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 81 

Attempts to bribe the Patriots. Convention at Boston 

to comply with their request without instructions from home. The 
lone of the Governor was more pacific ; he was evidently alarmed. 
He feared the talent and popularity of several of the leaders, and 
attempted to gain their support, or at least to separate them from the 
cause they had espoused. He gave to Hancock a commission honoring 
him with a seat in the Council — the patriot tore up his commission 
in the presence of the people. He approached John Adams with an 
offer of the lucrative office of Advocate-General in the Court of 
Admiralty, but the unwavering patriot received his overtures with 
disdain, as an insidious attempt to corrupt his principles, and indig- 
nantly spurned the proffered boon. Samuel Adams, also, was 
tempted by the wily functionary, but he found him, as Governor 
Hutchinson subsequently did, " of such an obstinate and inflexible 
disposition that he could never be conciliated by any office or gift 
whatsoever;" And the people, like their leaders, were " obstinate 
and inflexible." 

Finding the Governor unwilling to comply with their solicitation 
to convene the Assembly, the people determined to find a substitute 
therefor, by inviting the other towns to nominate deputies, and form 
a convention possessing pro tempore legislative powers. They made 
the anticipation of a war with France a plausible pretence for calling 
upon the people to act in accordance with a law of the Colony, au- 
thorizing each one to provide himself with a musket, and the requi- 
site ammunition. All the towns, except one, sent deputies, who 
assembled early in September. Their first act was to despatch a 
committee of three to the Governor, with a petition, disclaiming any 
idea of assuming any authoritative character, but professing merely to 
have met " in this dark and distressing time to consult and advise as 
to the best means of preserving peace and good order," and conclud- 
ed with a request again to call the Assembly. The Governor 
positively refused to receive the message, — would not recognise the 
meeting as a lawful assemblage, and on the following day wrote a 
letter, warning them to desist from further proceedings, and admo- 
nishing them to separate without delay. His admonition passed 
unheeded for a time, but, unlike the excited citizens, they were 
desirous of using pacific measures of resistance ; and they merely 
prepared a petition to the King, unfolding to him their grievances, but 
professing (as they really felt, aside from present oppressions) the 
most decided loyalty, and a desire to cultivate harmony with Great 
Britain. They also submitted an address to the people, which, in 
temperate language, set forth the alarming state of the country, yet 
earnestly inculcated submission to legal authority, and abstinence 



82 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1768. 

Arrival of troops from Halifax. Non-importation agreements. 

from all acts of violence and tumult. They then quietly separated, 
after a session of five days. 

Late in September, the troops arrived, and on the first of October, 
under cover of the cannon of the ships, landed in Boston, with 
charged muskets, fixed bayonets, colors flying, drums beating, and 
every other military parade usual on entering the domain of an ene- 
my. The selectmen, or municipal authorities of Boston, perempto- 
rily refused to provide quarters for the soldiers, and they were 
obliged to encamp, part on the Common, and part in the State House, 
which the Governor ordered to be opened to them. This imposing 
military display exasperated the people to the highest pitch ; and 
mutual hatred, deep and abiding, was engendered between the 
soldiers and the inhabitants, and " rebel " and " tyrant " were con- 
stantly bandied between them. 

The Colonies now entered into general agreements" against the 
importation of British goods. This was a step that developed the 
true patriotism of the people, especially of the wealthier class, who 
were deprived of most of their luxuries and many of their comforts, 
by the act. Yet associations for this purpose became general and 
active in the several Colonies, under the sanction of the Assemblies. 
As usual, Massachusetts took the lead, and Virginia was the first to 
follow. In the House of Burgesses of the latter Colony, Washing- 
ton presented a series of articles in the form of an association, drawn 
up by Mr. Mason. The House also passed several bold and pointed 
resolves, denying the authority of Parliament to impose taxes and 
enact laws hostile to the ancient liberties of the Colonies. Lord 
Botetourt, the Governor, whose sympathies were with the Colonies, 
could not, however, in justice to his position and the duty he owed 
to his sovereign, witness these proceedings in silence, and accord- 
ingly he went the next day to the Capitol, summoned the Burgesses 
to meet him in the council chamber, and there dissolved the Assem- 
bly. This exercise of official prerogative, although a virtual repri- 
mand, did not at all intimidate them, and they forthwith repaired in 
a body to a private house, and unanimously adopted the non-impor- 
tation agreement presented by Washington. Every member signed 
it, and it was then printed and sent into the country for the signatures 
of the people. Other Colonies followed the example.* 

* The non-importation agreement of the people of Boston was as follows : — 
" We will not send for, or import from Great Britain, either upon our own account, 
or upon commission, this fall, any other goods than what are already ordered for 
the fall supply. We will not send for or import, any kind of goods or merchandise 
from Great Britain, from the first of January, 17G9, to the first of January, 1770, 
except salt, coals, fish-hooks and lines, hemp and duck, bar lead and shot, wool 



chap, n.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 83 

Proposition to take Americans to England for trial. 

Parliament assembled on the 8th of November. Pitt, ill at his 
country-seat, and Townshend dead, the Duke of Grafton was at 
the head of the unpopular ministry. The speech from the throne 
alluded to fresh troubles in America, and denounced in strong terms 
the rebellious spirit which prevailed in Massachusetts Bay. The 
address proposed by ministers, alluded to the Americans in very 
harsh language, and assured the King of their determination to main- 
tain his relative position to the Colonies, and to preserve inviolate 
" the supreme authority of the Legislature of Great Britain over 
every part of the British empire." The address was adopted in the 
House of Lords without opposition ; but the Commons offered many 
objections, as it contained language and inferences not warranted by 
fact. They severely yet justly criticised the oppressive conduct of 
government toward America, as well as in its continental operations 
generally ; and it was with extreme difficulty, after much angry de- 
bate and mutual criminations, that it was finally adopted by 

, TT ' J v J a Jan. 1769. 

the lower House. 

Early in January Parliament proceeded to the consideration of 
measures towards America, exceeding in rigor all that had pre- 
ceded. A petition from the people of Boston, couched in the most 
loyal and respectful language, was contemptuously rejected ; and the 
Lords alleged, in a series of resolutions, that the people and Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts had been guilty of various illegal and treason- 
able acts, and that there was no probability of these crimes being 
properly punished in the country by native courts and juries ; and 
recommended, in an address to the King, that the criminals should be 
taken over to England, and tried by a special commission, according 
to a statute of 35th of Henry VIII. The resolutions and address were 
sent to the Commons for concurrence, but, like their predecessor, 
they met there with a powerful opposition. Mr. Dodswell de- 
nounced the measure as " unfit to remedy the disorders," and as 
" cruel to the Americans, and injurious to England." He strongly 
censured the Secretary of State for taking the responsibility, during 
the recess of Parliament, of ordering the Colonial governors to dissolve 
the Assemblies. 

Burke characterized all the preceding measures of government as 
rash, raw, indigested measures, which had inflamed America from 

cards and card wires. We will not purchase of any factor or others, any kind of 
goods imported from Great Britain, from January, 1769, to January, 1770. We will 
not import, on our own account, or on commission, or purchase from any who shall 
import, from any other Colony in America, from January, 1769, to January, 1770, 
any tea, paper, glass, or painters' colors, until the act imposing duties on those arti- 
cles shall be absolutely repealed." 



84 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1769. 

Proceedings of Parliament. Speech of PownaM. 

one end of the country to the other. " At the desire of an exaspe- 
rated Governor,"* he exclaimed, " we are called upon to agree to an 
address advising the King to put in force against the Americans the 
act of Henry VIII. And why ? Because you cannot trust the 
juries of that country. Sir, that word must convey horror to every 
feeling mind. If you have not a party among two millions of people, 
you must either change your plan of government, or renounce the 
Colonies for ever." Even Grenville, the father of the Stamp Act, 
strenuously opposed the measure as not only futile, but unjust to the 
Americans. Many others, — some who had heretofore seemed almost 
indifferent upon this subject, lifted up their voices against it ; yet, 
upon a division, the resolutions and address of the Lords were 
concurred in a by a majority of one hundred and fifty-five 

a Jan. 26. . ... J , J J J 

against eighty-mne.t 

On the eighth of February, Mr. Rose Fuller moved to recommit 
the address, and supported his motion by a masterly speech against 
the proposed measure of taking Americans to England for trial ; and 
in reference to the proposed tax, he asserted ; " As for the money, 
all that sum might be collected in London at less than half the ex- 
pense. "| He was warmly supported by Pownall, formerly Govern- 
or of Massachusetts, who, after referring to the history of the Colo- 
nies, the privations of the first settlers, their heroism, their virtues, 
their indomitable perseverance and enterprising spirit, remarked, 
" But now, that spirit, equally strong, and equally inflamed, has but 
a slight and trifling sacrifice to make ; the Americans have not a 
country to leave, but a country to defend ; they have not friends and 
relations to leave and forsake, but friends and relations to unite with 
and stand by, in one common union." He closed his speech with a 
solemn warning to ministers to stop short, retrace their steps, con- 
ciliate the Colonies by justice and kindness, or bear the fearful 
responsibility of driving loyal subjects to open rebellion. But the 
motion of Mr. Fuller was, upon a division, negatived by a majority 
of one hundred and sixty-nine against sixty-five. § This law, how- 
ever, became a dead letter, and was never put into execution. 

On the 14th of March, a petition or remonstrance from the people 
of New York was offered, denying the right of Parliament to tax 
them in any way. Lord North, who had just begun his long and 

* Bernard. f Cavendish's Debates. 

% It has been said that when Mr. Charles Townshend's project of taxation was in 
agitation, the English merchants offered to pay the taxes, or an equivalent for them, 
rather than run the risk of provoking the Americans and losing their trade. — Pic. 
His. of the Reign of George III. , note page 72. 

§ Cavendish's Debates. 



chap, ii.] EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 85 

Dissolution of Colonial Assemblies. Governor Bernard superseded by Hutchinson. 

eventful career, offered a resolution (which prevailed) that the paper 
should not be received. Upon this, Colonel Barre arose and reminded 
the House, that he had predicted all that would happen on passing 
the Stamp Act, and he said that he could now prophesy other and 
inevitable evils ; and with his usual boldness and energy of manner, 
he plainly told ministers, that, if they persevered in their present 
course, the whole continent of North America would rise in arms, 
and those Colonies, perhaps, be lost to England for ever. The 
events of a few subsequent years produced a fulfilment of this pre 
diction. 

These parliamentary proceedings fearfully augmented the excite- 
ment, indignation and alarm, which agitated the Colonies ; and the 
most hopeful advocate of conciliation and peaceful measures, now 
saw little else for the future to develope, but physical resistance. 
And yet those who most obstinately resisted the oppressions of the 
home government, still loyally refrained from a resort to arms, and 
tendered the olive branch of peace while strongly denouncing their 
oppressors. The Colonial Assemblies reiterated by resolutions, their 
oft-repeated political postulate, the exclusive right of the people to tax 
themselves, and boldly denied the right of the King to remove the 
offender out of the country for trial. For these, and similar resolves, 
the Assemblies of Virginia and North Carolina were dissolved by 
their respective Governors, who, like the Governor of Massachu- 
setts, were royal favorites. 

Governor Bernard demanded of the Massachusetts Assembly to 
provide funds for the payment of the troops quartered in Boston, but 
they not only refused to comply with this requisition, but would not 
transact business at all, while surrounded by soldiery sent to intimi- 
date them. They demanded the withdrawal of the troops, which 
the Governor objected to ; and they at once adjourned to 
Cambridge," where, alter passing some resolutions, which 
were offensive to the Governor,* the Assembly were dissolved, and 
their proceedings pronounced illegal, and even treasonable. The 
King, to testify his approbation, created Governor Bernard a Baronet, 
and took upon himself the whole expense of passing the 
patent. He was soon after succeeded in office* by Hutchin- 
son, his lieutenant, and returned to England, leaving behind him but 
few friends, and slight regrets at his departure. 

*They voted, " That the establishment of a standing army in this Colony in time 
of peace, is an invasion of natural rights ; that a standing army is not known as a 
part of the British Constitution ; that sending an armed force into the Colony, un- 
der a pretence of assisting the civil authority, is highly dangerous to the people, 
unprecedented and unconstitutional." 



86 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1769. 

Letter of Lord Hillsborough. Recapitulation of Acts of Parliament. 

The effects of the non-importation agreements of the Colonies 
began to be severely felt by the English merchants,* and they added 
their respectful petitions and remonstrance to the voice of Ame- 
rican discontent, and urged ministers to present a bill in Parliament 
to repeal the obnoxious acts. Lord Hillsborough had, by direction 
of Lord North, previously written a circular letter to the Colonies, 
intimating that the duties upon glass, paper, and painters' colors, 
would be taken off, as contrary to the true principles of commerce — 
in other words, as inexpedient. But the duty would still be left upon 
tea, of which the Colonists complained ; and moreover, expediency 
and not principle being the controlling motive for the proposed re- 
peal, it was considered by the Americans as no concession to them 
whatever, in point of principle ; therefore the letter of Lord Hills- 
borough failed of producing any tranquillizing effect. The ocean of 
popular feeling had been lashed into a commotion too fearful to be 
calmed by such a stinted portion of oil poured upon its angry bil- 
lows ; and the year 1769 closed without any apparent approximation 
of Great Britain and her American Colonies towards reconciliation. 

As before stated, when the Treaty of Paris in 1763 produced 
peace between Great Britain and France, the American Colonies were 
enjoying a state of unexampled prosperity ; and loyalty to the mother 
country was a predominant feeling, inculcated by instruction in in- 
fancy, and made a fixed principle in youth and maturity. But, in an 
evil hour, Britain needlessly and heedlessly raised the arm of oppres- 
sion against her faithful children. The enactment of certain revenue 
laws aroused their suspicions of impending danger, for they well 
knew the force and the rapacity of British cupidity. The Sugar 
Act, re-enacted, and accompanied by a declaration on the part of 
Parliament of a design to tax the Colonies, engendered from amid 
the agitations of just alarm, a bold spirit of resistance ; and Boston 
first lifted up the voice of remonstrance and warning. Her remon- 
strance was unheard, her warning was unheeded, and a more pow- 
erful instrument of wrong and oppression was brought into being, — 
the infamous Stamp Act was framed and became a law. In this act, 
British tyranny,' before obscured by the haze of acknowledged law 
and musty precedent, assumed a tangible form ; and in proportion as 
its true interest became developed, did the spirit of Colonial opposi- 
tion increase in strength and fervor, until ministers, discovering their 
fatal error, repealed the act. Then came the Declaratory Act, 

* The exports, which in 1768 had amounted to $11,890,000, of which $660,000 
was in tea, had fallen in 1769 to $8,170,000, the tea being only $220,000.— Murray's 
U S . vol i., p. 352. 



CHAP, n.] 



EVENTS FROM 1763 TO 1770. 



87 



Effect of various oppressive measures. 



assuming a right to levy taxes upon the Colonies, which they in turn 
denied. This again aroused Colonial jealousy — the Mutiny Act, and 
the establishment of a Board of Trade in the Colonies, awakened 
systematic resistance ; and the suspension of the legislative powers 
of the New York Assembly, until they should furnish certain supplies 
to the English troops, fanned the flame of open rebellion. Finally, 
ministers, untaught by the experience of the past, and willing rather 
to use the strong arm of power, instead of the more potent influence 
of kindness based upon justice, crowned their career of folly and 
wickedness by sending English mercenary troops to awe into sub- 
mission an injured and oppressed people. This act, so unnecessary 
and unjust, almost severed the last ligament of loyalty that bound 
the Colonies to the British throne — almost extinguished the last 
feeble ray of hope for a reconciliation — affiliated in a sacred commu- 
nity of interest the entire thirteen Colonies — and created in the 
hearts and minds of the American people irrepressible aspirations 
for Social Freedom and Political Independence. 




Faneuil Hall, Boston. 



EVENTS FROM 1770 TO 1774. 




Samuel Adams— Colonel Barre— Lord North. 



CHAPTER III. 




HE year 1770 dawned upon America with 
gloomy portents for the future. Too deeply 
was the principle of resistance to unjust 
taxation implanted in the hearts of the peo- 
ple to.be easily eradicated ; and too surely 
did the past acts of the British ministry 
foreshadow an obstinate adherence of the 
home government to its broad proposition 
of positive and unqualified right to tax her Colonies, nolens volens, to 
give the people a single ray of hope that that proposition would be 
abandoned. Hence, reconciliation seemed hardly possible — a resort 



, 90 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1770. 

Patriotism of American Females. General Gage and Boston Boys. 

to arms seemed inevitable. True, they had been told that the duty 
upon several articles would be taken off; yet they clearly foresaw 
the evident intent of continuing it upon one or more, in order to main- 
tain by practice the assumed right to tax the Colonies ; and because 
of this, they determined to resist. Everywhere the spirit of opposi- 
tion was almost a living principle ; nor were patriotic sentiments and 
action confined to the sterner sex. The warm, impulsive nature 
of woman was aroused, and directed towards the execution of 
patriotic behests ; and even the children seemed to draw the same 
impress of character from the mother's breast, and boldly bearded the 
British lion.* Early in February the females of Boston publicly 
leagued in a pledge of total abstinence from tea, as a practical execu- 
tion of the non-importation agreements of their fathers, husbands and 
9 brothers. " We are credibly informed," says the Boston 
17 ™- Gazette, a the leading " rebel newspaper," in the Colonies, 
" that upwards of one hundred ladies, at the north part of town, have, 
of their own free will and accord, come into, and signed an agree- 
ment, not to drink any tea till the Revenue Acts are repealed." At 
that date, the mistresses of three hundred families had subscribed to 
the league ; and when it was published the following week, it was 
accompanied by a declaration of intentions of joining the citizens at 
large, who had, in January, resolved unanimously, at a meeting in 
Faneuil Hall, " totally to abstain from the use of tea." The " Young 
Ladies " very soon afterwards * followed this patriotic exam- 
ple, and multitudes subscribed their names to a document in 

* While the King's troops were in Boston, an incident occurred that evinced the 
bold spirit of even the little boys. In the winter the boys were in the habit of 
building little hills of snow, and sliding down them on to the pond on the Common, for 
amusement. The English soldiers, to provoke them, would often beat down these 
hills. On one occasion, having rebuilt their hills, and finding on their return from 
school that they were again demolished by the soldiers, several of the boys deter- 
mined to wait upon the captain and complain of his soldiers. The captain made 
light of it, and the soldiers became more troublesome than ever. At last they called 
a meeting of the larger boys, and sent them to General Gage, the Commander-in- 
chief. He asked why so many children had called upon him. " We come, sir," said 
the tallest boy, " to demand satisfaction." " What !" said the General, " have your 
fathers been teaching you rebellion, and sent you to exhibit it here ?" " Nobody 
sent us, sir," replied the boy, while his eyes flashed and cheek reddened at the im- 
putation of rebellion, " we have never injured nor insulted your troops ; but they 
have trodden down our snow-hills, and broken the ice on our skating-grounds. 
We complained, and they called us young rebels, and told us to help ourselves if 
we could. We told the captain of this, and he laughed at us. Yesterday our works 
were destroyed the third time, and we will bear it no longer." The nobler feelings 
of the General's heart were awakened, and after gazing upon them in silent admira- 
tion for a moment, he turned to an officer by his side, and said, " The very children 
here draw in a love of liberty with the air they breathe. You may go, my brave 
boys, and be assured, if my troops trouble you again, they shall be punished." 



ckap. in.] EVENTS FROM 1770 TO 1774. 91 

Unpopularity of Importers of Tea. A Boy shot, 

the following terms : — " We, the daughters of those patriots who 
have, and do now, appear for the public interest, and in that, princi- 
pally regard their posterity, — as such do with pleasure engage with 
them in denying ourselves the drinking of foreign tea, in hopes to 
frustrate a plan which tends to deprive the whole community of all 
that is valuable in life? Similar movements were made in New 
York and Virginia among the females ; and so cordial and universal 
became the opposition to the Revenue Acts, that very few persons 
had the hardihood to allow their love of gain to be paramount to 
love of country, and sell and use the proscribed article. Yet there 
were a few who dared to act in bold defiance of public sentiment, in 
the importation and sale of tea ; among whom was one Theophilus 
Lillie, of Boston, who was instrumental in the production of incipient 
steps towards a popular tumult, exceeding in violence anything pre- 
ceding it. He, in connexion with three or four others, continued to 
sell imported goods in defiance of public feeling on this point. Nor 
did he confine himself to the act of sale solely, but he publicly de- 
clared his intention to continue trade, let the non-importation associ- 
ations do as they pleased. This conduct very much excited the 
populace, and on the 22d of February they manifested their strong 
disapprobation by placing a rude wooden head upon a pole near 
Lillie's door, having upon it the names of the other importers ; and 
attached a wooden hand thereto, whose finger pointed directly'towards 
the offending tradesman's premises. A mob of noisy boys soon col- 
lected, and by their remarks greatly irritated Lillie and his friends, 
among whom was a rough man named Richardson, who tried to in- 
duce a countryman to run his wagon against the pole and prostrate 
it. He was a patriot and refused ; and in Richardson's attempt to 
do it himself, he was pelted with dirt and stones, and driven into his 
house. Much exasperated, he brought out his musketj loaded with 
swan shot, and discharged it into the crowd, slightly wounding a lad 
named Christopher Gore (afterwards Governor of the Common- 
wealth), and mortally wounding another named Snyder. The people 
were furious at this outrage ; seized Richardson and an associate, 
named Wilmot, carried them to Faneuil Hall, had them examined, 
and committed them for trial.* 

This event produced a deep sensation throughout the country. 
The newspapers teemed with the accounts of the funeral of young 
Snyder, and he was spoken of everywhere as the first martyr to the 



* Richardson was, at the April assize, found guilty of murder, but the Lieutenant 
Governor refused to sign his death warrant, and after two years' confinement, he 
was pardoned by the King. 



92 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1770. 

Funeral of the boy Snyder. Excitement against the Soldiers. 

cause of American Liberty.* His funeral ceremonies were attended 
in a manner before unexampled. His coffin, covered with inscrip- 
tions — " Innocence itself not safe," and similar ones — was placed 
under Liberty Tree. In the procession to the grave, between four 
and five hundred school-boys took the lead. Six of Snyder's play- 
fellows supported the coffin. After these came the relatives and 
nearly fifteen hundred of the inhabitants. The scene was one of 
deep and abiding impress — it was the initial life of the hecatombs 
subsequently sacrificed upon the altar of the Moloch of War during 
the straggle for American Liberty. 

On the second of March, a soldier passing by the rope-walk of Mr. 
John Grey, got into a quarrel with the workmen, and was severely 
beaten. He repaired to the barracks, and returning with several of 
his comrades, they in turn beat the rope-makers, and pursued them 
through the streets. The excitable portion of the inhabitants were 
soon assembled, but the next day being Saturday, and so near the 
Sabbath, they deferred vengeance until Monday, the fifth. 

Between seven and eight o'clock in the evening of the fifth, about 
seven hundred of them, armed with clubs and other missiles, pro- 
ceeded towards King (now State) street, shouting " Let us drive out 
these rascals ! they have no business here — drive them out !" Fresh 
parties with sticks and clubs reinforced them, and an attack was 
made in Dock Square, upon some soldiers. In the meanwhile, the 
fearful cry of " Fire ! fire !" echoed through the town, and the alarm 
bells vehemently rang out their peals of dismay and terror, as if a 
great conflagration was raging. The whole town presented a scene 
of tumult and confusion. About nine o'clock, the mob, constantly 
augmenting, began to tear up the stalls of the market-place in Dock 
Square, and prepared for an attack upon the soldiers. Two or three 
leading citizens used every persuasion to induce them to disperse, and 
had in a measure gained the respectful attention of the populace, when 
a tall man dressed in a scarlet cloak and with a white wig, suddenly 
appeared among them, and commenced a most violent harangue against 
the government officers and the soldiers, and concluded by a loud 

* The following curious communication appeared in the Boston Gazette : — 
" Messrs. Eddes and Gill : — The general sympathy and concern for the murder 
of the lad by the base and infamous Richardson, on the 23d, will be a sufficient rea- 
son for your notifying the public that he will be buried from his house in Frog 
Lane, opposite to Liberty Tree, on Monday, when all the friends of Liberty may 
have an opportunity of paying their last respects to the remains of this little Hero 
and first martyr to the noble cause, whose manly spirit (after this accident happen- 
ed) appeared in his discreet answers to his doctor, and thanks to the clergyman who 
prayed with him, and the firmness of mind he showed when lie first saw his parents, 
and while he underwent the greatest distress of bodily pain ; and with which he 
met the King of Terrors. A Mourner." 



chai>. in.] EVENTS FROM 1770 TO 1774. 93 

Attack upon a Sentinel. Custom-house Guard assailed. 

shout, " To the main guard ! to the main guard !" A hundred voices 
echoed the shout with fearful vehemence. The mob, by a precon- 
certed movement, then separated into three divisions, taking each a 
different road towards the quarters of the main guard. 

As one of the divisions was passing the custom-house, a boy 
came up,* and pointing to the sentinel upon duty, cried out, " That's 
the scoundrel who knocked me down." Instantly about twenty 
voices cried out, " Let us knock him down — down with the bloody- 
backs ! Kill him ! kill him !" The sentry loaded his gun, when 
they began to pelt him with snow-balls, pieces of ice, and 
every other missile they could find ; and with oaths and insulting 
epithets, dared him to fire. Emboldened by his forbearance to fire, 
they closed upon him and attempted to drag him into the street. He 
ran up the steps of the custom-house and begged for admission ; but 
the people within were afraid to open the doors, lest the mob might 
rush in. He then shouted to the main guard for assistance, which 
was immediately rendered. Captain Preston, the officer of the day, 
detailed a corporal and six privates, and sent them to the relief and 
rescue of the sentry, and the protection of the custom-house. As 
they approached, they found the mob greatly increased and con- 
stantly augmenting in number, and they were pelted by them worse 
than the sentinel had been. 

One of the chief leaders of the mob was a mulatto of herculean size 
and strength, named Crispin Attucks, who was surrounded by a party 
of sailors, vociferously shouting, " Let us strike at the rapt ! Let 
us fall upon the nest ! The main guard ! the main guard !' The 
five soldiers sent to the rescue of the sentinel were assailed with 
every species of foul epithet — they were challenged to fire, and 
were taunted with the assertion that they dared not fire without the 
order of the civil magistrate. Meanwhile the soldiers loaded their 
guns and affixed their bayonets thereto ; but the increasing mob, not 
at all intimidated, pressed so closely upon them, that the foremost 
were against the points of the bayonets. The soldiers, well knowing 
the strictness and severity of military discipline and law, refrained 
from discharging their muskets without orders, stirred not a step 
from where they were posted, and merely used their weapons to keep 
off the mob. 

* This boy was an apprentice to a barber named Piemont, at whose shop some of 
the British officers were in the habit of shaving. One of them had come there some 
months previous to dress by the quarter, whose bill Piemont promised to allow to 
the boy who shaved him, if he behaved well The quarter had expired, but the 
money could not be got, although frequently asked for. The last application was 
made on that evening, and, as the boy alleged, the officer knocked him down in reply 
to the " dun." The sentry he pointed out as the man that abused him. — Thatcher 



94 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1770 

Attack upon the soldiers and death of three citizens. 



Thoroughly emboldened by this apparent fear of the soldiers, 
Attucks and the sailors who were with him gave three loud cheers, 
pressed close upon the troops, and with clubs beat their bayonets 
and muskets, and cried out to the rest, " Come on ; don't be afraid 
of 'em, they dare not fire ; knock 'em over ; kill 'em !" Presently 
Attucks aimed a blow at Captain Preston, who accompanied the 
corporal and his guard, and who was using every endeavor to ap- 
pease the fury of the populace. The blow fell upon the captain's 
arm and knocked down the musket of one of his men, the bayonet 
of which was seized by the mulatto. At that moment there was a 
confused cry proceeding from some persons behind Captain Preston, 
" Why don't you fire ! why don't you fire ?" Montgomery, the pri- 
vate whose bayonet was seized by Attucks, and who, in the struggle, 
was thrown down, soon rose to his feet in possession of his gun, 
and immediately fired. Attucks fell dead. A few seconds after, 
another soldier fired, and then, at short intervals', to allow time for 
reloading, other five men fired one by one from left to right. Three 
persons were killed, five dangerously wounded, and a few more 
slightly.* Those who were slightly injured were persons passing 
by or quiet spectators of the scene. The populace instantly re- 
treated, leaving the three killed on the ground, but soon returned to 
carry off the bodies. 

" On the people's assembling again," says Captain Preston in his 
written defence, " to take away the dead bodies, the soldiers, suppos- 
ing them coming to attack them, were making ready to fire again, 
which I prevented, by striking up their firelocks with my hand. 
Immediately after, a townsman came and told me that four or five 
thousand people were assembled in the next street, and had sworn to 
take my life, and every man's with me ; on which I judged it 
unsafe to remain there longer, and therefore sent the party and sen- 
try to the main guard, where the street is narrow and short ; then 
telling them off into street firings, divided and planted them at each 
end of the street to secure their rear, expecting an attack, as there 
was a constant cry of the inhabitants, ' To arms ! to arms ! turn out 
with your guns !' and the town drums beating to arms. I ordered 
my drums to beat to arms, and being soon after joined by the several 
companies of the twenty-ninth regiment, I formed them as a guard 
into street firings. The fourteenth regiment also got under arms, 
but remained at their barracks. I immediately sent a sergeant with 
a party to Colonel Dalrymple, the commanding officer, to acquaint 

* Crispin Attucks, Samuel Gray and James Caldwell, were killed on the SDot ; 
Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr received mortal wounds, of which the former 
died the next morning, and Carr on Wednesday of the next week. 



chap, in.] EVENTS FROM 1770 TO 1774. 95 

Arresi of Captain Preston. Appointment of a Committee of Citizens. 

him with every particular. Several officers going to join the regi- 
ment were knocked down by the mob, one very much wounded, and 
his sword taken from him. The Lieutenant Governor* and Colonel 
Dalrymple soon after met at the head of the twenty-ninth regiment, 
and agreed that the regiment should retire to their barracks, and the 
people to their houses : but I kept the piquet to strengthen the guard. 
It was with great difficulty that the Lieutenant Governor prevailed 
on the people to be quiet and retire : at last they all went off except 
about a hundred." 

This tragic scene occurred at midnight — the ground was covered 
with snow ; the air was clear and frosty ; and the moon, then in its 
first quarter, gave but a faint phosphorescent illumination, by which 
the features of the people were made barely visible to each other. 
It was indeed a dreadful night for Boston — aye, for the whole coun- 
try. Foreign soldiery sent to intimidate and oppress a people strug- 
gling to be free — a people still loyal, and asking freedom, not at the 
price of political independence, but the mere concession to them of 
the prerogatives guaranteed by the Great Charter of England — had 
spilled the blood of soil-born citizens, whose only offence was a re- 
sistance to tyranny. This was the first convulsive throe of that 
earthquake power of combined moral and physical energy that finally 
severed the chain of slavery, and dismembered the most powerful 
empire of the earth. The fifth of March, 1770, was the first dawning 
of the day of the new political era ; and significantly may we paro- 
dy the words of Cassius, " Remember March, the calends of 
March remember !" 

Captain Preston was arrested and committed to prison about three 
o'clock that morning, and in the course of the forenoon the eight sol- 
diers were also arrested and committed for trial. Early in the 
morning the " Sons of Liberty"! began to collect in vast bodies. The 
Lieutenant Governor summoned a Council, and the magistrates and 
chief citizens met in full assembly and chose a committee of fifteen 
who were appointed to wait upon the Lieutenant Governor and Colo- 
nel Dalrymple, to express to them the sentiments of the town, that it 
was impossible for the soldiers and inhabitants to live in safety 
together, and offer their fervent prayer for the immediate removal of the 
former. Mr. Royal Tyler, one of the committee, assured the Go- 
vernor that he must not think the demands for the removal of the 
troops were urged merely by a set of vagabonds and rioters ; that 
people of the best character, men .of estate, men of religion, had 

* Hutchinson. 

t This appropriate name was given to the American patriots (who afterwards 
assumed it) by General Conwav, on the floor of the British House of Commons. 

7 



96 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1770. 

Refusal of the Governor to withdraw the troops. Boldness of Samuel Adams. 

made up their hearts and minds, and had formed their plan for re- 
moving the troops out of town by force, if they would not go volun- 
tarily. " The people," said he, " will come in to us from all the 
neighboring towns ; we shall have ten thousand men at our backs ; 
and your troops will probably be destroyed by the people, be it called 
rebellion or what it may." 

The Governor would not agree to accede to the demands of the 
people, and his answer was so unsatisfactory, that in the afternoon, 
seven of the first committee (viz., John Hancock, Samuel Adams, 
William Molineux, William Phillips, Joseph Warren, Joshua Hen- 
shaw, and Samuel Pemberton) were again deputed with the follow- 
ing message : " It is the unanimous opinion of this meeting, that the 
reply made to a vote of the inhabitants presented his Honor, this 
morning, is by no means satisfactory ; and that nothing else will 
satisfy them than a total and immediate removal of the troops." 
Samuel Adams acted as chairman of this delegation, and discharged 
its duties with an ability commensurate to the occasion. Colonel 
Dalrymple was by the side of Hutchinson, who, at the head of the 
council, received them. He at first denied that he had power to 
grant their request. Adams plainly, in few words, proved to him 
that he had the power by the charter. Hutchinson then consulted 
with Dalrymple in a whisper, the result of which was a repetition of 
an offer already made, to remove one of the regiments (the four- 
teenth) which had had no part in the massacre. At that critical 
moment, Adams showed the most admirable presence of mind. 
Seeming not to represent, but to personify, the universal feeling, he 
stretched forth his arm, as if it were upheld by the strength of thou- 
sands, and with unhesitating promptness and dignified firmness 
replied, "If the Lieutenant Governor, or Colonel Dalrymple, or 
both together, have authority to remove one regiment, they have au- 
thority to remove two ; and nothing short of a total evacuation of 
the town, by all the regular troops, will satisfy the public mind or 
preserve the peace of the province.'" The officers, civil and military, 
were in reality abashed before this plain committee of a democratic 
assembly. They knew the imminent danger that impended : the 
very air was filled with the breathings of suppressed indignation. 
They shrunk, fortunately shrunk, from all the arrogance which they 
had hitherto maintained. Their reliance on a standing army faltered 
before the undaunted, irresistible resolution of free, unarmed citi 
zens.* • 

Hutchinson again consulted his council, and they gave him their 

* Snow's History of Boston. 



chap, in.] EVENTS FROM 1770 TO 1774. 97 

Funeral of Attucks, Maverick, and Carr. Trial of Captain Preston and his men. 

unqualified advice that the troops should be sent out of the town. It 
was agreed that the Lieutenant Governor, his Council, and the com- 
manding officer, should jointly bear the responsibility of the act ; and 
the latter then pledged his word of honor that the demand of the 
town should be complied with as soon as practicable ; and 
on the Monday following the troops were all removed to a 
Castle William.* 

The funeral obsequies of the persons who were shot on the night 
of the fifth were observed on the eighth, and brought together a larger 
concourse of people than had ever before convened, on one occasion, 
in America. Attucks, the mulatto, who had no relatives, and Cald- 
well, who also was friendless and a stranger, were borne from 
Faneuil Hall ; Maverick, who was only about seventeen years old, 
from the house of his mother, in Union street, and Gray from the 
house of his brother, in Royal Exchange lane. The three hearses 
met in King street, in front of the custom-house, where the massacre 
occurred, and from thence the procession marched in a column, with 
platoons six deep, through the main street to the Middle burial ground, 
and there the four bodies were deposited in one grave. Durino- the 
procession all the bells of Boston and adjacent towns tolled a solemn 
knell — a knell whose reverberations were echoed from heart to heart 
to the remotest settlement, and awakened in each a strong pulsation 
of determined resistance to British oppression and unmitigated 
wrong. 

After some delay, Captain Preston and eight soldiers were put 
upon their trial before Judge Lynde, for murder. John Adams, one 
of the leading patriots, was applied to, to undertake their defence, as 
their counsellor and advocate in the court. This was indeed a try- 
ing situation for Mr. Adams, under all the circumstances. He had 
taken an active part in all proceedings aiming at the removal of the 
troops from the town ; he had united with the militia as a private, 
mounting guard and patrolling the streets for the security of the 
lives and property of the inhabitants ; and he was emphatically a 
man of the people — a people whose feelings had been so outraged 
by the very men now asking his counsel and defence. Firm in his pa- 
triotism, and conscious of his integrity of purpose, he exhibited a man!) 
independence, and at the hazard of losing the favor and esteem of 
the people, he stepped forward as the advocate of the prisoners, 
having for his colleague Josiah Quincy, another leading patriot, 

Castle William was on Castle Island, nearly three miles south-east from Boston, 
and at the entrance of the harbor. It was visited by President Adams, the elder, on 
the 7th of December, 1799, who then changed its name to Fort Independence.— 
Willson. 



98 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 

Acquittal of all the soldiers but two. Lord North's repealing bill. 

whose eloquence had frequently called forth the loudest applause 
within Faneuil Hall, the " Cradle of American Liberty." After a 
fair and impartial trial, before a Boston Jury, Captain Preston was 
adjudged " Not Guilty ;" and their verdict also was, that six of the 
soldiers were not guilty ; and that two — Montgomery, who killed 
Attucks, and Killroy, who was proved to have shot another man — 
were not guilty of murder, but of manslaughter only. It was 
admitted on all hands that only seven guns were fired, and there 
being eight soldiers, there must consequently be one innocent ; and 
the jury chose rather to let the guilty go free, than to condemn and 
punish one innocent man. This trial, the advocates engaged in it, 
and the verdict of the jury, under all the circumstances, exhibit to 
the world an instance of nobleness of feeling and righteousness of 
purpose unparalleled in history ; and form one of those luminous 
points of the American Revolution which ever appear like culminat- 
ing stars. 

It is a singular coincidence that on the fifth of March, the very 
day on which the tumult and massacre in Boston took place, Lord 
North moved for leave to bring in a bill repealing the act imposing 
duties upon glass, paper, and painters' colors, but still retaining the 
duty upon tea, for the purpose, as was alleged by the mover, of 
" saving the national honor " in this extraordinary concession to the 
Colonies. This movement on the part of the minister was impelled 
by a petition presented by English merchants, representing that, in 
consequence of the duties and taxes, the discontent of the Americans, 
and their combinations to prevent the importation of British goods, 
their trade had gone to ruin. Lord North, fearing the discontents of 
America might infect with a similar feeling the commercial classes 
of England, felt it expedient to introduce his half-and-half resolu- 
tions. When they were presented, they met with little favor by 
either party. Mr. Grenville, the parent of the Stamp Act, argued, 
as he had done before, that he, at least, had acted systematically ; 
that in imposing the stamp duties, he had reason to think that they 
would be paid ; that the succeeding ministry, in repealing the act, 
had re-affirmed the right of Parliament to tax the Colonies ; that Mr. 
Charles Townshend, under the next ministry, had laid his duties 
upon unwise and anti-commercial principles ; and that these duties 
had turned out far more odious to the Colonies than the Stamp Act ; 
that now a partial repeal would not do ; that ministers must give up 
the whole, the duty upon tea, as well as upon the rest, or stand by 
the whole. A partial repeal, he said, would do no good, nor would 
the Americans now rest satisfied with anything short of the renunci- 



chap, hi.] EVENTS FROM 1770 TO 1774. 99 

Debate in the British Parliament. Effect of the Repeal in the Coloniea. 

ation by Parliament of the right to tax them in any way, either 
externally or internally. He declined giving any vote. 

Governor Pownall proposed, as an amendment, that the repeal 
should be extended to all articles, as the only way of quieting the 
Colonies. Colonel Barre, General Conway, and others, supported 
this amendment. Lord Barrington and others opposed alike the 
original motion and the amendment, declaring their conviction that 
even a total repeal would fail in satisfying the Americans, and that 
they would never again be obedient to English laws, until reduced 
to submission by English arms. Pownall's amendment was rejected 
by a vote of two hundred and four against one hundred and forty- 
two ; and leave was given to bring in Lord North's bill. A subse- 
quent motion, to repeal the duty on tea, was lost.* Lord North's 
repealing bill, after encountering much opposition in both Houses, 
and especially in the Lords, was finally carried, and received the 
royal sanction on the twelfth of April. 

In the House of Commons a call was subsequently made 
for the correspondence with the American Colonies ;° and a 
few days afterwards, 6 Mr. Burke moved eight resolutions b Ma y 9 - 
relating to the Colonial troubles, and censuring the plan, or rather 
no plan, ministers were pursuing. A sustained call for the previous 
question cut off all debate, and the resolutions were negatived. 
Similar resolutions were presented in the House of Lords, by the 
Duke of Richmond, so altered as to prevent the previous question ; 
but they too were negatived by a majority of sixty against twenty- 
six, and the subject was dropped for the time. 

When the news arrived of the passage by the British Parliament 
of Lord North's repealing bill, the Colonists, and particularly the 
Bostonians, regarded it with very little favor, considering that the 
retention of the duty upon tea did away with all its merits, their 
opposition to this, and every other species of taxation, not being be- 
cause of the amount, but the principle involved in it ; and this prin- 
ciple was as tangible in the imposition of a duty upon a single arti- 
cle, as if imposed upon a hundred different articles of commerce. 
The New Yorkers in the meanwhile had, to a great extent, violated 
the non-importation agreements ; and in October, at a meeting of 
Boston merchants, it was resolved to follow the example of New 
York, and import everything but tea. The Philadelphians also made 
similar resolves, and that strong measure of coercion, which indeed, 
through the mercantile interest, had brought about the repeals under 
consideration, was nearly suspended, much to the chagrin and dis- 

* Cavendish's Debates. 



100 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1770. 

General disaffection of the Colonies. " Liberty Poles." 

appointment of the leading patriots, who justly appreciated the con- 
cessions of Great Britain, and regarded them as simply a temporary 
cessation of oppression, speedily to be renewed when circumstances 
should seem to render it prudent and expedient. 

Notwithstanding this defection of New York and the partial politi- 
cal backsliding of some of the other provinces — notwithstanding 
trade with Great Britain was again revived, and tranquillity seemed 
to rest upon the surface of society, there was still visible a deep, 
resistless under-current of patriotic decision and determination that 
ere long disturbed the placidity of the scene ; and in every direction 
the surges of social commotion beat heavily and incessantly against 
the strong barriers of civil and military power. New York was luke- 
warm, but New England and Virginia had lost none of their wonted 
zeal. In the latter Colony, the patriots were led by Patrick Henry, 
the wonderful self-taught orator — the Demosthenes of America ; and 
by Thomas Jefferson, then a young lawyer, who was not only dis- 
satisfied with the aristocratic character of the Constitution of the 
province, and the dependence of the people upon Great Britain, but 
was firmly imbued with a sentiment of Freedom which could brook 
no restraint short of Colonial independence. To them, the " Boston 
Massacre" was a text of power, and the popular sympathy was strongly 
aroused for the oppressed and abused Bostonians. Hitherto, there 
existed but an imperfect bond of social union between these two 
Colonies, owing to the great difference in their habits and pursuits ; 
but the atrocities of the fifth of March destroyed these antagonisms, 
and awakened the bitterest expressions of condemnation of the con- 
duct of the British troops and the British ministry. 

The House of Burgesses of Virginia adopted an address to the 
King having the mixed character of a petition and a remonstrance, 
in which they expressed strong dissatisfaction with Lord North's im- 
perfect repeal act, and at seeing the mother country still madly per- 
sisting in the exercise of the assumed undoubted right to tax the 
Colonies, as exhibited in the retention of a duty upon tea. They 
criticised the conduct of their Governor, Lord Botetourt, and plainly 
told his Majesty that no reliance could be placed upon the good will 
or moderation of those who were sent to rule over them and execute 
the laws of the home government. In every part of the Colonics 
men of the first standing and influence were actively engaged in 
correspondence, by which they kept up a continual interchange of 
intelligence, and promoted a constant and strong affiliation in senti- 
ment. In various parts of the country, the " May-poles " of former 
times were christened " Liberty-poles ;" travelling agents widely 
circulated exciting documents among the people, and accompanied 



chap, in.] EVENTS FROM 1770 TO 1774. 101 

Events on the Southern frontier. Organization of the •' Regulators." 

their distribution with harangues — the Houses of Assembly that were 
opened, were found no less difficult to manage than they had been 
the preceding year, and were speedily closed by their respective Go- 
vernors, by prorogation — and the year 1770 drew near its close, wit- 
nessing a general feeling of discontent and indignation among the 
Colonies against the mother country. 

During the years 1771 and 1772, no extensive outbursts of public 
feeling were witnessed at the north ; but on the southern frontier of 
the English domain, the spirit of liberty was at work, and a bold- 
ness of opposition to government power, equal to the New England 
demonstrations, was there manifested. The tyrannical character and 
practices of Tryon, the Governor of North Carolina, had done much 
to inflame the zeal of the people in the cause of freedom ; and in 
proportion to their detestation of the Governor, was the boldness of 
the people in their measures of resistance. Tryon had pursued a 
course well calculated to excite the jealous alarm of a people vigi- 
l-ant and distrustful. He had made the courts of law instruments of 
injustice and oppression, and the officers, both military and judicial, 
by whom he was surrounded and counselled, were men, in most 
cases, of like character with himself. So insupportable became 
his rule, that a large number of citizens formed a league," and a April 
signed articles of covenant, sealed with an oath or affirmation, 1 ' 6 ' - 
whereby they bound themselves perpetually to use all just means in 
the regulations of public grievances and abuses of power ; to pay 
no more taxes until satisfied that the levying was in accordance with 
law and equity ; to pay no more fees to public officers than the law 
allowed ; to attend meetings of conference as often as necessary and 
convenient, for the amendment of grievous laws ; to choose suitable 
men for burgesses and vestrymen ; to petition the House of Assem- 
bly, Governor, Council, King, and Parliament, for redress of griev- 
ances ; to interchange opinions and intelligence, and enjoy the privi- 
leges guaranteed to them by the Constitution ; to contribute money 
for defraying the^ expenses of the league ; and in all cases, to sub- 
mit to the judgment of the majority of the body. This association 
of men was termed " The Regulation," or " the Regulators," and in 
a short time they were spread all over the western counties of the 
Carolinas, and were potential in keeping alive and augmenting the 
spirit of resistance to the oppressions of the home government through 
her executive agents. While the same innate love of liberty, and 
the same spirit of independence which actuated the intelligent patri- 
ots of the north, were the motive impulses of these southern free- 
men, yet it cannot be denied that acts were committed, under their 
passive sanction, highly censurable. At the same time there were 



102 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1771. 

Tryon's Expedition against the Regulators. Execution of young Few. 

frequent cases of most foul injustice that might palliate, where they 
could not justify, the violence committed, and the prevailing ignorance 
of the masses, caused a powerful torrent of misrule, where their 
passions were aroused. " The most sober and sedate in the com- 
munity were united in resisting the tyranny of unjust and exorbitant 
taxes ; and had been aroused to a degree of violence and opposition, 
difficult to manage and hard to quell. And the more restless, and 
turbulent, and unprincipled parts of society, equally aggrieved and 
more ungovernable, cast themselves in as a part of the resisting mass 
of the population, with little to gain but greater license for their 
unprincipled passions, and little to lose, could they escape confine- 
ment and personal punishment."* They so resisted the course of 
law, that the sheriffs were unable to collect a tax or levy an execu- 
tion, and in some counties the courts were suspended for a year. 

Matters had assumed such a serious aspect — so much like positive 
rebellion, that in the Spring of 1771, Governor Try on determined 
to proceed against the Regulators with an armed force. They had 
concentrated on the banks of the Alamance river, where, within six 
miles of them, the Governor's troops encamped on the fourteenth 
of May. After various attempts at accommodation, the Governor 
demanded from the Regulators unconditional submission, and gave 
an hour for consideration. Both parties advanced to within three 
hundred yards of each other. The Regulators did not expect nor 
intend to fight, believing that the Governor, seeing their numbers, 
would grant their demands. Tryon ordered them to disperse within 
an hour. In the meanwhile, a man by the name of Thompson, who 
went into the Governor's camp to negotiate, was detained a prisoner, 
and on his attempting to leave, Tryon seized a gun and shot him dead. 
This greatly exasperated the Regulators, and they fired on a flag of 
truce sent out by the Governor. The parties drew nearer and nearer 
to each other, until at length the Governor gave the word "Fire !" 
His men hesitated, and the Regulators dared them to fire ! " Fire !" 
cried the Governor, rising in his stirrups, " fire on them or on me ;" 
and immediately the cannon and the small arms were discharged. 
Nine of the Regulators, and twenty-seven of the militia were killed, 
and a great number on both sides wounded. Several of the Regu- 
lators were taken prisoners, and were most cruelly treated by the 
Governor. On the evening of the battle he hung an exemplary 
young man, named James Few,f without even the form of a trial ; 

* Sketches of North Carolina, p. 54 

f This young man had been severely oppressed by the exactions of Colonel Fan- 
ning, the most odious officer in the Colony. To fill the measure of his iniquity 
and of wrong to young Few, he had violated the person of his intended bride ! 
This drove Few to madness and rebellion. 



chap. Hi.] EVENTS FROM 1770 TO 1774. 


103 


Execution of Messer and others. 


Burning of the Gaspee. 



and not content with this murderous act, he barbarously proceeded to 
the destruction of the little property which he had accumulated for 
his parents in their helplessness of old age ! A captain Messer was 
condemned to be hung the next day. His wife, hearing of his cap- 
tivity and intended fate, came with her oldest child, a lad about ten 
years of age to intercede for her husband. Her tears had no effect 
upon the brutal Tryon. While the preparations were making for the 
execution she lay upon the ground weeping, her face covered with her 
hands, and her weeping boy by her side. When the fatal moment, 
as he supposed, had arrived, the boy, stepping up to Tryon, said, 
" Sir, hang me, and let my father live !" "Who told you to say 
that?" said the Governor. " Nobody," replied the lad. " And why 
do you ask that ?" said the Governor. " Because," replied the boy, 
" If you hang my father, my mother will die, and the children will 
perish !" " Well," said the Governor, really moved by the words 
of the lad, " your father shall not be hung to-day."* But the respite 
for poor Messer was brief. He, among others, was exhibited in 
chains to the people of the villages through which the Governor 
passed on his way to Hillsborough, and on the nineteenth of June, 
Messer, with five others, was executed near that town. 

For a time the people were awed by these atrocities ; but they 
served to plant still deeper in the hearts of Americans the seeds of 
hatred of the English ; and when at length the signal gun of Free- 
dom on the field of Lexington, proclaimed the severance of the bond 
of allegiance to the British crown, the people of the extreme south, 
eagerly and instantly swelled its reverberations with a simultaneous 
shout to arms ! and a declaration of political independence.! 

One of the most startling events of this period, was ihe burning 
of a British armed schooner, lying near Providence, Rhode Island. 
She was called the Gaspee, and was stationed there for the purpose 
of sustaining and enforcing the revenue laws. She had become 
odious to the people of Providence by her outrages upon vessels 
entering the harbor. She was accustomed to require the Providence 
vessels to take down their colors when they came into port, and in 
case of refusal, she would chase them and fire upon them. One 
day a packet' came in and refused to make the customary obeisance 
to this marine Gesler. The Gaspee, as usual, gave chase, and the 
packet so manoeuvred that she caused the schooner to run aground. 
A plan was immediately concerted in Providence to destroy her. A 
volunteer company under Captain Whipple, and several boats with 
armed men proceeded to the schooner, and about two o'clock in the 

* Sketches of North Carolina, p. 62. 

t See account oi' the Mecklenberg Convention, p. 



104 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1773. 

Ministerial proposition to make Governors, &c, independent of the Colonies. 

morning succeeded in boarding her. They seized all on board, and 
after sending the lieutenant commanding and crew, and most of the 
valuable effects ashore, they set fire to the schooner, and she was 
burnt with all her stores. A reward of five hundred pounds sterling 
was offered, and other means employed to discover the perpetrators 
of the act, but all in vain. A commission was also appointed to try 
the parties when discovered, but their services were never needed. 

Soon after this, news arrrived of a proposition submitted to Parlia- 
ment by Lord North, to make the Governors and judges of the Colo- 
nies quite independent of those they governed, by paying their sala- 
ries directly from the national treasury, instead of making them 
dependent therefor upon the Colonial Assemblies. This proposition 
was viewed with much disfavor by the Colonies, and, Massachusetts 
taking the lead, the various Assemblies entered their solemn protests 
against the proposed measure, justly arguing that these servants, 
dependent solely upon the crown, would be the pliant instruments of 
the home government, ready at all times to do the bidding of the 
King and his Council. The watchful jealousy of the Americans 
was aroused by this new scheme — their vigilance, which they had 
already learned to appreciate as the price of liberty, was awakened, 
and the system of Committees of Correspondence, which proved so 
powerful an agent in the work of the Revolution, was called into 
being. 

In this movement, Virginia made the first decided step. On the 
twelfth of March, 1773, Mr. Dabney Carr,* a young and talented 
member of the Virginia Assembly, proposed, in a series of resolu- 
tions, that a Committee of Correspondence should be appointed, and 
recommended other Colonies to appoint like committees, whose 
special duty it should be to keep each other continually informed of 
every movement having a bearing upon the public weal or woe.t 

* Mr. Carr was a young man of splendid talents, and a brother-in-law of Mr. 
Jefferson The plan of corresponding committees as introduced into the House of 
Burgesses was fixed on in a caucus at the Raleigh tavern ; consisting of Messrs. 
Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Dabney Carr, Thomas 
Jefferson, and two or three others. Mr. Jefferson was first designated to make the 
resolutions, but declined in favor of Mr. Carr. It is highly probable that the pro- 
position was set on foot by the fertile mind of Mr. Jefferson." — Arnold's Life of 
Patrick Henry {unpublished), p. S3. 

f The first committee consisted of Peyton Randolph, Robert C. Nicholas, Richard 
Bland, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pendleton, Patrick Henry, 
Dabney Carr, Archibald Carey, and Thomas Jefferson. 

So nearly simultaneous was this movement in Virginia, with a similar one in 
Boston, the result there of the suggestions of Samuel Adams and James Warren, 
that both States contend for the honor. But Virginia seems to have been the first to 
make a decided public stand in the matter. Some attribute the invention of this 
system of correspondence to Dr. Franklin. 



chap, in.] EVENTS FROM 1770 TO 1774. 105 

Committees of Correspondence. Letters of Governor Hutchinson. 

The effect of the active operations of these Committees of Cor- 
respondence, was very soon felt by a more general unanimity of 
action and sentiment throughout the whole Anglo-American domain. 
At first, these Committees were confined to the larger cities, but 
very speedily, every village and hamlet had its auxiliary committee, 
and the high moral tone evinced by the chiefs, ran through all the 
gradations, from the polished committees appointed by Colonial 
Assemblies, to the rustic, yet not the less patriotic, ones of the inte- 
rior towns, and through these, made its impress upon the whole 
people. Thus the patriot hearts of America at this crisis beat as 
with one pulsation, and the public mind was fully prepared to act 
with promptness and decision when circumstances should call for 
action. 

In the midst of this effervescence, a circumstance occurred 
which intensely augmented the flame of rebellion burning in the 
people's hearts, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the more 
judicious part of the community could restrain them from striking 
at once a decisive blow for freedom. The centre of this new commo- 
tion was Boston, that hot-bed of patriotism. The bad conduct of 
Hutchinson, the successor of Governor Bernard, had led the Assem- 
bly of Massachusetts to pass various resolutions, all having the color 
of a determination to act independent of the British crown. They 
had denied the right of Parliament to legislate for the Colonies in 
any matters whatsoever ; they had denounced the famous Declara- 
tory Act of 1766 as an arbitrary and unjust assumption of legislative 
power without their consent : they had charged the British ministry 
with designing to complete a system of slavery begun in the House 
of Commons, and executed by the Colonial Governors ; and they 
had accused Hutchinson of connivance with ministers in all the 
various acts of oppression in which they were concerned. Just at 
this moment communications from Doctor Franklin, then in England, 
conveyed to the Colonies alarming intelligence of the real disposition 
of the King, his ministers, and the Parliament, and enclosing letters 
addressed by Hutchinson and his deputy, Oliver, to the home gov- 
ernment, in which they vilified the leading patriots, advised the 
adoption of coercive measures, and declared that " there must be an 
abridgment of what are called English liberties." 

These letters were sent by Franklin to Mr. Cushing, the Speaker 
of the Massachusetts Assembly, and at once the whole town was in 
a violent ferment, which soon spread through the province and to other 
Colonies. A committee was appointed to wait upon the Governor 
and demand his acknowledgment of his signature, which he readily 
did, but declared the letters to be quite private and confidential. 



106 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1773. 

Wedderburn's attack on Franklin. Franklin deprived of the office of Postmaster General. 

The Assembly then adopted a petition to the home government for 
the immediate removal of Hutchinson and Oliver. They charged 
them with betraying their trust and slandering the people under their 
government by false and malicious representations, and declared them 
enemies to the Colonies, and as such, they could not be tolerated. 

This petition was sent to Dr. Franklin, charged with instructions 
to present it in person, if possible. This was granted, and Franklin 
a Jan. 29, appeared before the Privy Council* with Mr. Dunning, as 
1773 ' counsel in the case. a Wedderburn, the Solicitor General, 
was in attendance, and attacked the Doctor with great severity ; 
accusing him of violating the nicest points of honor in clandestinely 
procuring private letters ; and charged him with duplicity and wily 
intrigue, equalled only " by the bloody African." These taunts 
Franklin received in silence, and without any apparent emotion, 
feeling conscious of the purity of his purpose and the righteous- 
ness of his acts.f But ministers could not forgive him for thus 
exposing their probable designs and the real character of Hutchin- 
son, their instrument ; and three days after his appearance before the 
Privy Council, he was dismissed from the lucrative and responsible 
office of Postmaster General for the Colonies, which he had held 
for some time. 

Copies of the petition and remonstrance, and also of Hutchinson's 
letters, were printed, and scattered broadcast over the whole country, 
everywhere arousing the lukewarm to action, and awakening the 
half-slumbering energies of those who reposed in the false security 
of a hope of reconciliation. 

About this time a new thought upon financial matters made its 
advent in the brain of Lord North. On account of the pertinacity 
with which the Colonies adhered to the resolutions not to use tea, 
that article had greatly accumulated in the warehouses in England, 
of the East India Company,! occasioning them much loss. Desirous 
of aiding the Company, then become a strong arm of the empire 
through its conquests in India, and little foreseeing the mischief it 
would lead to, the minister offered a resolution to permit them to 

* The Privy Council consisted of the Cabinet and thirty-five Peers. 

| It is said that on returning to his lodgings that night, he took off the suit of 
clothes he had worn, and declared he would never wear it again until lie should sign 
the degradation of England and the independence of America. And on the follow- 
ing morning he told a friend that he had never been so sensible of a good conscience 
before. Franklin was too honorable to divulge the name of the person from whom 
he received the letters of Hutchinson, and the whole subject remained in mystery. 
But within the last fifteen years it has been shown that they were put into Frank- 
lin's hands by a Dr. Williamson, without suggestion, who procured them by strata- 
gem from the office of the Secretary, Mr. Whateley. 

J They had upwards of seventeen millions of pounds in store. 



chap, in.] EVENTS FROM 1770 TO 1774. 107 

Lord North's Tea Bill. Arrival of the ships laden with tea. 

export tea to America without paying export duty. Still compara- 
tively blind to the real cause of quarrel between Great Britain and 
her American Colonies — still unable to appreciate the distinction 
between principle and expediency, Lord North supposed that the 
Colonists, thus receiving tea cheaper than the people of old England 
were procuring it, would be gently and almost imperceptibly 
manoeuvred out of the principle for which they so strongly con-, 
tended. Strange to say, this resolution — this new measure in the 
unfortunate catalogue of evil ones that had driven the Americans to 
the confines of an open rebellion, was passed with scarcely a dis- 
senting voice in Parliament. And it is a singular coincidence (pa- 
rallel to the simultaneous action of Lord North on repeal, and the 
troops and civilians in the Boston Massacre, in March, 1770), that 
on the very day" that the minister offered his resolution re- a March 

. . 1^ 1773 

specting the exportation of tea, Carr introduced his resolu- 
tions in the Virginia Assembly, for organizing Committees of Cor- 
respondence. And while the letters of Hutchinson were kindling 
anew in many hearts the flame of patriotic indignation, and the 
people were prepared for almost any measure in support of their 
oft-asserted principle on the subject of taxation, many large ships 
heavily laden with tea, were out upon the broad Atlantic on their 
way to America. 

Intelligence of the passage of Lord North's resolutions reached 
the Colonies before any cargoes of tea had arrived ; and public meet- 
ings had been held, and the consignees threatened with violence if 
they should receive the tea. In Boston, the consignees, who were 
particular friends of Governor Hutchinson, refused to comply with 
the demands of the people, and applied to the Governor for protec- 
tion, which was promised. 

At length two ships* arrived at Boston, heavily laden with a Nov 29 
the obnoxious article. 3 A public meeting was immediately 1773 - 
called of the inhabitants of Boston and the surrounding country, and 
they passed resolutions similar to those which had been adopted in 
Philadelphia and Charleston, that the tea which came charged with 
a duty to be paid in America, should not be landed, but be sent back 
in the same bottoms. The houses of the consignees, who evinced 
a determination to have the tea. landed, were surrounded by a mob, 
and the inmates were compelled to fly to Castle William for refuge. 
On the other hand, the Governor and his Council absolutely refused 
to permit the ships to depart without landing the tea, and the captains 



* Ship Eleanor, Captain James Bruce ; and the ship Beaver, Captain Hezekiah 
Coffin. 



108 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 


[1773. 


Public meetings in Boston.. 


Indications of a tumult. 



consequently were in a sad predicament. The people appointed a 
guard to patrol day and night, and prevent any of the tea being 
landed. 

The consignees sent letters from Castle William to the people, 
offering to store the tea till they could receive further instructions. 
This offer was rejected with disdain. Crowded meetings were held 
in Faneuil Hall and the Old South Meeting House, and the Commit- 
tees of Correspondence were faithfully sending information of all tint 
passed to the other Colonies. On the fourteenth of December, at 
a large meeting held in the Meeting-house, orders were sent to the 
captains of the vessels to return to England without delay. The 
Collector of the Port replied to this order that he would not give any 
clearance until the cargoes were discharged. The captains also 
stated that they had the positive orders of the Governor to remain, 
and that they could not pass out of the harbor except under the 
guns of the fort ; and that Admiral Montague had sent two ships of 
war to guard the harbor entrance. 

On the sixteenth another crowded meeting was held in the " Old 
South," where one party recommended moderate measures ; but 
generally a rather violent spirit was manifested. Mr. Josiah Quincy, 
jun., spoke out boldly, and warned them that a spirit of firm 
patriotic decision was now necessary — that a crisis had arrived when 
the question of freedom or slavery for the Colonies must be settled, 
and intimated that the settlement must be made by a resort to arms. 
" The exertions of this day," said he, " will call forth events which 
will make a very different spirit necessary for our salvation. Who- 
ever supposes that shouts and hosannas will terminate the trials of 
the day, entertains a childish fancy. We are approaching measures 
which must bring on the most trying and terrible struggle this coun- 
try ever saw." These prophetic words were soon fulfilled. 

About three o'clock in the afternoon the question was put to the 
meeting whether they would abide by their former resolutions in 
respect to the tea ; and it was carried in the affirmative without one 
dissenting voice. They then sent a deputation to the Governor to 
desire him to give the ships a permit to depart. This the Governor 
refused, and the deputation reported to the meeting accordingly. A 
warm discussion ensued, in the midst of which some persons outside 
clad in the costume of Mohawk Indians, gave a loud war-whoop, 
which was immediately responded to by one of their number in the 
front gallery within. It was evident that some violent tumult was brew- 
ing, and some of the most judicious persons present moved an adjourn-, 
merit, which was carried. It was now quite dark (six o'clock^ and 
as the people left the church, the disguised men started towards 



shap. in.] EVENTS FROM 1770 TO 1774. Ill 

Destruction of tea in Boston Harbor. Not permitted to be sold elsewhere. 

Griffin's wharf, where the two ships before mentioned, and two or 
three others that had arrived, were lying, shouting, " To Griffin's 
wharf ! Boston Harbor a tea-pot to-night !" Many of the people 
followed, and when the disguised party reached the wharf, they were 
joined by a large number of sailors and colored men, who still 
remembered with bitter hate, the fate of Attucks. They immedi- 
ately repaired on board of one of the ships, broke open the hatches, 
hoisted the chests of tea out, broke them in pieces and discharged 
their contents into the sea. The other vessels were then boarded in 
the same manner, and so vigorously did these men ply themselves 
that within the space of three hours, three hundred and forty-two 
chests of tea were broken up and their contents thrown into the 
dock. There were only fifteen or twenty men disguised as Indians, 
and only about one hundred and forty in all, engaged in the work of 
destruction. Many of them had their faces blackened for fear of 
discovery, it being a moonlight night ; yet a large proportion boldly 
engaged in the labor regardless of detection. When the work of 
destruction was over, they all marched in quiet procession through 
the town ; no disorder was attempted, and it was observed, the still- 
est night ensued that Boston had enjoyed for many months. 

This act struck the ministerial party with rage and astonishment ; 
while, as it seemed to be an attack upon private property, many 
who wished well to the public cause could not fully justify the mea- 
sure. Yet perhaps the laws of self-preservation might justify the 
deed, as the exigencies of the times required extraordinary exertions, 
and every other method had been tried in vain, to avoid this disagree- 
able alternative. Besides, it was alleged (and doubtless it was true) 
the people were ready to make ample compensation for all damages 
sustained, whenever the unconstitutional duty should be taken off, 
and other grievances radically redressed. But there appeared little 
prospect that any conciliatory advances would soon be made. The 
officers of government discovered themselves more vindictive than 
ever ; animosities daily increased, and the spirits of the people were 
irritated to a degree of alienation, even from their tenderest connex- 
ions, where they happened to differ in political opinion.* 

In New York and Philadelphia no person could be found that 
would venture to receive the tea, and the Company's ships which 
arrived in these ports were obliged to return to England with their 
cargoes. In Charleston permission was given to land it to be stored, 
but not for sale. It was there placed in a damp cellar, where it soon 
perished. 

* Mrs. Warren's History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American 
Revolution, vol. i., p. 10S. 



112 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1773. 



Reflections on the Te;i Riot. 



When the first excitement produced by these bold and revolu- 
tionary measures had abated, all parties concerned were desirous of 
placing the blame on other shoulders than their own. The Bostoni- 
ans attributed the extremes to which the people had gone in destroy- 
ing the tea, to the wilful obstinacy of the Governor, and his 
discovered league with the home government to oppress the 
Colonies. There is doubtless much truth in this allegation ; and, as 
a general rule, had the Colonial Governors acted with proper courtesy 
and conciliation of manner towards those they came to govern, there 
would have been far less cause for discontent. On the other hand, 
the Governor with truth argued, that if he had complied with every 
extreme demand of the people, it would have been a virtual abdica- 
tion of power and authority, and a real surrender of the government 
into the hands of the populace ; thus violating his oath to the crown, 
and betraying the trust reposed in him by his sovereign. This, 
however, was a fair argument based upon false premises, assuming 
that all power was of right vested in the King and Parliament, when 
in fact it reposed (or ought to have reposed) upon a broader basis, — 
the people. This truth was then imperfectly developed and seldom 
taught ; and the Colonial Governors, ignorant of the value of such 
truths, and their practical application, and taught to revere monarchy 
in all its manifestations from simple pomp to unmitigated tyranny, 
may, on the grounds of that ignorance and that tuition, be excused for 
many acts which, to our republican apprehension, appear quite out- 
rageous and unpardonable. There was much in the circumstances 
connected with the Boston tea commotion to admire — much to con- 
demn, when viewed with the superficial vision of human understand- 
ing. Yet who cannot see in this, as in all other movements and 
counter movements of Freedom and Despotism during the struggle 
of the Americans in the cause of Liberty, the workings of the mys- 
terious finger of Providence in the development of political and 
social truths which are now acting as a mighty lever, whose fulcrum 
is Intellect, in elevating the Race towards its primal sphere ? Dull 
indeed must be the perception that does not recognise in all these 
events a wonder-working Providence elaborating from partial evil, 
universal good ; and cold indeed must be the heart that does not, 
when this perception pours in its light, glow with fervid thanks- 
givings and praises to the Omnipotent Ruler of human destiny, who 
" doeth all things well." 



EVENTS OF 1774, 




John Hancock — Edmund Burke — General Conway. 



CHAPTER IV. 




ARLIAMENT opened on the thirteenth of 
January, at which time intelligence of the 
proceedings in Boston during the month 
previous, had not reached England ; and 
the King alluded very briefly to the Ame- 
rican Colonies, in his speech from the 
throne. On the seventh of March, some 
weeks after the news of the tea riot had 
reached the ears of government, the King sent a message to both 
Houses detailing all the late proceedings had in the New England and 
other Colonies, and especially the tea commotion in Boston. Accom- 



114 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 

The King's message to Parliament. Motion for an address to the King. 

panying his message were a variety of papers, consisting of letters 
from Governor Hutchinson, Admiral Montague, and the consignees 
of the tea ; the despatches of several Colonial Governors ; some 
of the most inflammable American manifestoes; pamphlets ; handbills, 
&c. After expressing his confidence in the wisdom and patriotism 
of Parliament, he called upon the legislature to devise means for 
putting a stop at once to these tumultuous proceedings in America ; 
for the more rigid execution of the laws, and the maintenance of a 
"just dependence of the Colonies upon the Crown and Parliament of 
Great Britain." 

In the Commons, on the receipt of the message, a motion was 
made for an address to the throne, " to return thanks for the message 
and the gracious communication of the American papers, with an 
assurance that they would not fail to exert every means in their 
power, of effectually providing for objects so important to the general 
welfare as maintaining a due execution of the laws, and securing the 
just dependence of the Colonies upon the Crown and Parliament of 
Great Britain." This motion, in connexion with the presentation of 
the message and the American papers, produced a violent excitement 
in the House of Commons, and made it " as hot as Faneuil Hall or 
the Old South Meeting House at Boston." The debate was a 
stormy one ; ministers and their supporters charging open rebellion 
upon the Colonies ; and the opposition justly condemning the ill- 
digested addresses that had been put forth by government, and the 
pledges that had been given which were never more thought of. To 
this retrospect, ministers opposed the plea of uselessness in sum- 
moning the past from oblivion, and demanded immediate action upon 
present information from America. They asked whether America 
was or was not to be any longer considered dependent on Great 
Britain? how far? in what degree? in what manner? They as- 
serted that it might be a question whether the Colonies should not 
be given up ; and they asked for a decision of the important question 
in order to allow government to take decisive measures ; for if the 
question should be decided in the negative, then ministers would 
immediately report a plan for reducing the refractory Colonies to 
submission to the authority of the King and Parliament. The 
strong national resentment felt towards the Colony of Massachusetts 
Bay, in consequence of the late and former acts of open hostility 
to the home government, not only strengthened Lord North's position 
at the head of the cabinet, but it materially weakened the opposition 
in the lower House of Parliament ; and when the question on the 
resolution authorizing an address, and also one against acting upon 
retrospect matters, was taken, there was an immense majority in the 



chap. iv. J EVENTS OF 1774. 115 

The Boston Port Bill. Ministerial reasons for the Bill. 

affirmative, and the address was carried without a division. Mr. 
Bollan, agent for the Council of Massachusetts Bay, immediately pre- 
sented a petition, asking permission to lay before the House the 
Acta Regia of Queen Elizabeth and her successors for the security 
of the Colonists and the perpetual enjoyment of their liberties. The 
petition was received by the Commons, and it was at once ordered 
to lie upon the table, without any further notice being taken of it. 

With a firm determination to try more rigorous measures to en- 
force obedience from the Colonies, Lord North moved" for 

. . a March 14. 

leave to bring in a bill to remove the customs, courts of 
justice, and all government officers, from Boston to Salem. It 
is generally agreed that this measure was not in consonance with the 
mild disposition or the better judgment of Lord North ; but that he 
was probably goaded on by others, who reproached him for his con- 
cessions to the Colonies. Strange to say, this measure, fraught with 
so much evil (if pouring oil upon the flame of Colonial discontent 
and irritation, may be called an evil), like its predecessor, the Stamp 
Act, nearly ten years before, encountered very little opposition, and 
elicited scarcely any debate in the House of Commons. Considering 
the offence of Boston, it was thought to be very lenient. During its 
progress through the lower House, another petition was presented 
from Mr. Bollan, the agent of the Council of Massachusetts Bay, 
desiring to be heard against it ; but the House refused to grant the 
prayer of the petitioner. On the third reading, another petition 
was presented by the Lord Mayor of London, in the name of several 
natives and inhabitants of North America, who strongly insisted that 
it was unreasonable to deprive Boston of its trade, because some of 
the people had committed unlawful acts ; that the bill was harsh and 
unjust, and that its tendency was to alienate the affections of America 
from the mother country. Lord North justified the measure by 
asserting that Boston had ever been the centre of tumult whence all 
disorders in the Colonies emanated ; that it was the ringleader in 
every riot, and set always the example, which others only followed. 
To inflict a signal penalty upon that city, he thought would strike at 
the root of the evil ; and in justification, he quoted several parallel 
instances ; among others, the execution of Captain Porteus by an 
Edinburgh mob, in which a whole city was punished for an offence 
committed by a large portion 'of its inhabitants. It was proposed, 
therefore, that the port of Boston should be closed, and no goods 
allowed to be either shipped or landed. This restrictive measure 
was to remain in force till the citizens should express a due sense of 
their error, and make full compensation to the East India Company 
for the loss of their tea ; when the Crown, if it should see sufficient 



116 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 

Debates in Parliament. 

reason, might restore its lost privileges.* Even Colonel Barre, the 
standing advocate of America, said he approved of this measure for 
its moderation. Some of the supporters of the ministry used violent 
language towards the Americans. Mr. Hubert said it was in vain 
to expect any degree of reasoning from them ; they always chose tar- 
ring and feathering. Mr. Montague, son of Lord Sandwich, at- 
tributed their boldness to the tame counsels, the weak and unmanly 
conduct of ministers, who allowed themselves to be swayed by a 
faction seeking popularity by clamor. Mr. Van drew still greater 
attention, by declaring that the port ought to be knocked about, their 
ears and destroyed, adding the quotation, " dclenda est Carthago." 
Mr. Fuller proposed merely the imposition of a fine ; and Mr. 
Burke, who at this time commenced his series of splendid orations 
in favor of transatlantic liberty, denounced the scheme as essentially 
unjust, by confounding the innocent and guilty. f " It is wished, 
then," said he, " to condemn the accused without a hearing, to 
punish indiscriminately the innocent with the guilty ! You will thus 
irrevocably alienate the hearts of the Colonies from the mother coun- 
try. Before the adoption of so violent a measure, the principal 
merchants of the kingdom should at least be consulted. The bill is 
unjust, since it bears only upon the city of Boston, whilst it is no- 
torious that all America is in flames ; that the cities of Philadelphia, 
of New York, and all the maritime towns of the continent, have 
exhibited the same disobedience. You are contending for a matter 
which the Bostonians will not give up quietly. They cannot, by 
such means, be made to bow to the authority of ministers ; on the 
contrary, you will find their obstinacy confirmed, and their fury 
exasperated. The acts of resistance in their city have not been 
confined to the populace alone ; but men of the first rank and opu- 
lent fortune in the place have openly countenanced them. One 
city in proscription, and the rest in rebellion, can never be a reme- 
dial measure for general disturbances. Have you considered 
whether you have troops and ships sufficient to reduce the people of 
the whole American continent to your devotion ? It was the duty 
of your Governor, and not of men without arms, to suppress the 
tumults. If this officer has not demanded the proper assistance 
from the military commanders, why punish the innocent for the fault 
and the negligence of the officers of the crown ? The resistance 
is general in all parts of America ; you must therefore let it govern 
itself by its own internal policy, or make it subservient to all your 
laws, by an exertion of all the forces of the kingdom. These par- 

* Murray (Ed. Cab. Lib.), vol. i., p. 35S. 
f History, Debates, &c, vol. vii., p. 69-103. 



chap, iv.] EVENTS OF 1774. 117 



Act to alter the Constitution of Massachusetts. 



tial counsels are well suited to irritate, not to subjugate."* Dodswell, 
Johnstone, Pownall, Fox,t and others, followed briefly ; but argu- 
ment seemed to have no effect, and the bill was agreed to without a 
division, and almost without debate, properly speaking. In the 
House of Lords, there was considerable exciting conversation on the 
subject, but no debate of consequence ; and on the twenty-eighth of 
March it was passed by an almost unanimous vote. On the thirty- 
first it received the royal assent, and the trade of Boston was anni- 
hilated pro tempore. 

Had ministers stopped here, reconciliation might have been effect- 
ed ; but while the Boston Port Bill was before the Lords, Lord 
North, in a committee of the whole lower House, brought in a bill 
" For the better regulating the government in the province 
of Massachusetts Bay." a This bill provided for an alter- 
ation in the constitution of that province, as it stood upon the charter 
of William III., to do away with the popular elections which decided 
everything in that Colony ; to take the executive power out of the 
hands of the growing democratic party ; and to vest the nominations 
of the members of the Council, of the judges, and of magistrates of 
all kinds, including the sheriffs, in the Crown, and in some cases, in 
the King's Governor. 

Upon this bill, so manifestly hostile to American freedom, there 
was a warm debate. Barre and Burke opposed it with all their 
strength of mind and elegance of speech ; and very pertinently asked, 
" What can the Americans believe but that England wishes to 
despoil them of all liberty, of all franchises ; and, by the destruction 
of their charters, to reduce them to a state of the most abject slave- 
ry ? . . . .As the Americans are no less ardently attached to liberty 
than the English themselves, can it ever be hoped they will submit 
to such exorbitant usurpation ? to such portentous resolutions ?" 
Governor Pownall warned ministers that their measures would be 
resisted, not, perhaps, by force of arms, but the opposition of the 
whole people. He alluded to the powerful engine of Freedom then 
in motion, the Committees of Correspondence ; and predicted the 
commotion that the dismissal of Doctor Franklin from the Post 
Office would create. He assured them that when the news of 
these harsh measures should reach them, the corresponding commit- 
tees would at once be in active operation, and through them the 
whole people would communicate with each other. He predicted a 

* Otis's Botta, vol. i., p. 115. 

t This was Charles Fox's first appearance in Parliamentary life, and it was a 
singular beginning. He objected to the power vested in the British Crown to re~open 
the port of Boston ! His suggestion was not supported by either party. 



118 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 

Act providing for sending criminals to England for trial. 

Congress and a probable resort to arms. It was opposed also by 
Charles Fox ; but, like the Port Bill, it was carried by an overwhelm- 
ing majority, — two hundred and thirty-nine against sixty-four. In 
the upper House it was vehemently denounced by several Lords, 
and among them Lord Shelburne ; but there, too, it was carried by 
ninety-two against twenty. Eleven Peers signed a protest, in seven 
long articles. 

On the 15th of April, Lord North crowned his acts of folly and 
oppression, by asking leave for the introduction of a bill, totally 
subversive of the noblest features in the charter of the Massachu- 
setts Colony. It was entitled, " A bill for the impartial administra- 
tion of justice in the cases of persons questioned for any acts done 
by them in the execution of the laws, or for the suppression of riots 
and tumults in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England." 
It provided that, in case any person should be indicted in that pro- 
vince for murder, or any other capital offence, or any indictment for 
riot, resistance of the magistrate, or impeding the laws of revenue 
in the smallest degree, he might, at the option of the Governor, or, 
in his absence, of the Lieutenant Governor, be taken to another 
Colony, or transported to Great Britain, for trial, a thousand leagues 
from his friends, and amidst his enemies. 

Lord North supported his resolution with his usual ability. " We 
must show the Americans," said he, " that we will no longer sit 
quietly under their insults ; and also that, even when roused, our 
measures are not cruel and vindictive, but necessary and efficacious. 
This is the last act I have to propose in order to perfect the plan ; 
the rest will depend on the vigilance of his Majesty's servants em- 
ployed there." The motion for leave to introduce the bill was 
violently opposed by Barre and others. He denounced the " plan " 
as big with misery, and pregnant with danger to the British empire. 
" This," said he, " is indeed the most extraordinary resolution that 
was ever heard in the Parliament of England. It offers new en- 
couragement to military insolence, already so insupportable 

By this law, the Americans are deprived of a right which belongs to 
every human creature, — that of demanding justice before a tribunal 
composed of impartial judges. Even Captain Preston, who, in their 
own city of Boston, had shed the blood of citizens, found among 
them a fair trial, and equitable judges." The motion for leave to bring 
in the bill was passed without a division, and on the twenty-first it 
was introduced, and gave rise to another stormy debate. Alderman 
Sawbridge asserted that the measure proposed was ridiculous and 
cruel ; that witnesses against the crown could never be brought over 
to England ; that the act was meant to enslave the Americans ; and 



chap, iv.] EVENTS OP 1774. 119 



Mr. Rose Fuller's desertion of the Ministry. 



expressed the ardent hope that the Americans would not admit of the 
execution of any of these destructive bills, but nobly refuse them all. 
He said, " If they do not, they are the most abject slaves upon earth, 
and nothing the minister can do is base enough for them." Pownall 
loudly predicted a Congress, and perhaps a war. The House was 
quite thin when the vote was taken ; and it was carried, one hundred 
and twenty-seven to forty-four. In the Lords it was carried, forty- 
nine to twelve. Eight Peers entered a strong protest against it. 

Mr. Rose Fuller, who generally supported ministers, sincerely 
desiring reconciliation, and wishing to break the severity of the mea- 
sures about to be put into execution against the Colonies, 
moved for the repeal of the tea duty," the immediate source 
of all the evil. His motion was sustained by the eloquence of 
Burke, but it was negatived by one hundred and eighty-two to forty- 
nine. On the pronunciation of the decision, Mr. Fuller made use of 
these remarkable words : " I will now take my leave of the whole 
plan ; you will commence your ruin from this day ! I am sorry to 
say, that not only the House has fallen into this error, but the people 
approve of the measure. The people, I am sorry to say, are misled. 
But a short time will prove the evil tendency of this bill. If ever 
there was a nation rushing headlong to its ruin, it is this." 

It being near the close of the session, many members had retired 
into the country ; and when the bill was read the third time, and the 
vote was taken, the number was very small, although the majority 
was large — one hundred and twenty-seven ayes to twenty-four 
nays. In the Lords it passed by a majority of forty-three to twelve, 
and a protest was signed by only eight Peers. 

Thus, in rapid succession, did the British ministry introduce into 
Parliament strong and oppressive measures, avowedly designed as a 
plan to coerce the American Colonies into tame submission to the 
power that was daily binding heavy chains upon them. How mani- 
fest appears the misunderstanding of the English of the temper of 
their children beyond the sea ; and how futile did these measures 
prove when the theory was tested by practice ! Instead of awing 
the Americans into submission, they strengthened the strong arm of 
defiance, and added tenfold fervor to the zeal of patriotism ; and the 
"plan" adopted, instead of meeting the exigencies of the case, not 
only failed to secure its aim, but was the instrument of incalculable 
mischief to the British realm. 

Immediately after the decision of the questions just noticed, a bill 
was introduced into the House of Lords, which plainly evinced the 
tear of the ministry that their coercive measures would drivx, the 
Colonies to open rebellion and a resort to arms. It was a bill 



120 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 



Change in the laws of the Province of Quebec. 



" For making more effectual provision for the government of 
the province of Quebec, in North America." It proposed the es- 
tablishment in Canada of a Legislative Council, invested with all 
powers, except that of levying taxes. It was provided that its 
members should be appointed by the Crown, and continue in author- 
ity during its pleasure ; that Canadian subjects, professing the Catho- 
lic faith, might be called to sit in the Council ; that the Catholic 
clergy, with the exception of the regular orders, should be secured in 
the enjoyment of their possessions, and of their tithes from all those 
who professed their religion ; that the French laws, without jury, 
should be re-established, preserving, however, the English laws, with 
trial by jury, in criminal cases. It was also added, in order to fur- 
nish the ministers with a larger scope for their designs, that the 
limits of Canada should be extended, so as to embrace the territory 
situated between the lakes, and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.* 
This was a liberal concession to the people of Canada, nearly all 
of whom were French, and but a small portion of them Protestants. f 
The nobility and clergy had frequently complained of the curtailment 
of their privileges, and maintained that they were better off under 
the old French rule previous to 1763, than now. The measure pro- 
posed was well calculated to quiet all discontent in Canada, and 
make the people loyal. By such a result, a place would be secured 
in the immediate vicinity of the refractory Colonies, where troops 
and munitions of war might be landed, and an overwhelming force 
be concentrated, ready at a moment's warning to march into the ter- 
ritory of, and subdue, the rebellious Americans. This was doubtless 
the ulterior design of the ministry in offering these concessions ; and 
the eagle vision of Colonel Barre plainly perceived it. In the debate 
on the bill, he remarked, " A very extraordinary indulgence is given 
to the inhabitants of this province, and one calculated to gain the 
hearts and affections of these people. To this I cannot object if it 
is to be applied to good purposes ; but if you are about to raise a 
Popish army to serve in the Colonies, from this time all hope of 
peace in America will be destroyed." The bill met with violent 

* Soon after the introduction of this bill, Thomas and John Penn, son and grand- 
son of William Penn, put in a remonstrance against the boundary proposition, as it 
contemplated an encroachment upon their territory, they being the proprietaries of 
Pennsylvania, and the counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, in Delaware. 
Burke, also, who was then the agent for New York, contended against the boundary 
proposition, because it encroached upon the boundary line of that Colony. 

■(■ General Carleton, then Governor of Canada, asserted during his examination 
before Parliament, that there were then in that province only about three hundred 
and sixty Protestants, besides women and children ; while there were one hundred 
and fifty thousand Roman Catholics. 



chap, iv.] EVENTS OF 1774. 121 

Impeachment of Chief Justice Oliver. Hutchinson succeeded by Gage. 

opposition within and without Parliament, as it was opposed to the 
religious and national prejudices of the great mass of the English 
people. It was finally passed by a handsome majority, and on the 
twenty-first of June became law, by receiving the royal signature. 
The other laws, — the Boston Port Bill, — the subversion of the Massa- 
chusetts charter — and the law authorizing the transportation of 
criminals to Great Britain for trial, were all received with hearty 
approbation by the people of England. 

While the British Parliament were organizing these strong mea- 
sures against the Americans, the latter were active in preparing an 
efficient barrier of defence against the effects of further legislative 
encroachments. As early as January, the Assembly of Massachu- 
setts Bay resolved that it was incumbent upon the judges of that 
Colony to determine at once, whether they would receive their sala- 
ries direct from the Crown, or depend therefor upon the votes of the 
Assembly. Chief Justice Oliver replied to these queries, that he 
should look to the Crown hereafter for his emoluments of office. 
The Assembly then resolved by a majority of ninety-six to nine, 
" That Peter Oliver hath, by his conduct, proved himself an enemy 
to the constitution of this province, and is become justly obnoxious 
to the good people of it ; that he ought to be removed from the 
office of Chief Justice ; and that a remonstrance and petition to the 
Governor and Council for his immediate removal be prepared." 
They also resolved to impeach the Chief Justice. The Governor 
refused to remove him, and declared the acts of the Assembly un- 
constitutional. This refusal of the Governor, was to them presump- 
tive evidence that he too would receive his salary directly from the 
Crown, and that henceforth, if not removed, he would act perfectly 
independent of the Colony. 

Hutchinson had become so odious to the people of Massachusetts 
Bay, that had not his recall accompanied the Port Bill and others, no 
doubt the summary vengeance of an incensed populace would have 
overtaken him when these oppressive measures went into operation. 
The Governor himself feared their resentment when he should be 
stripped of power and unshielded by the broad aegis of majesty, as 
its representative ; and, chagrined by the loss of place, and mortified 
by the neglect of some, he retired to a small village in the neighbor- 
hood of Boston and secluded himself from observation until he 
embarked for London on the memorable day when, by act ol 
Parliament, the port of Boston was closed." He was sue- a June h 
ceeded in office by General Gage, who, a few days after 
the reception of the Port Bill,' landed on Long Wharf with b M;i > r 13 
part of his family and staff, and without troops. At New York, 



122 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 

Publication of the Boston Port Bill. Fast day in Virginia. 



General Gage had distinguished himself by discreet and conciliatory 
conduct, and he was very courteously received in Boston notwithstand- 
ing the popular ferment that was so visible on every side. He was 
entertained by the magistrates and others at a public dinner, and that 
evening Hutchinson was burned in effigy. The next day a nume- 
rously attended town meeting was held, to take into consideration the 
Port Bill, and it was resolved, " That it is the opinion of this town, 
that, if the other Colonies come into a joint resolution to stop all 
importation from, and exportation to, Great Britain, and every part 
of the West Indies, till the act be repealed, the same will prove the 
salvation of North America and her liberties ; and that the impolicy, 
injustice, inhumanity and cruelty of the act exceed all our powers 
of expression ; we therefore leave it to the just censure of others, 
and appeal to God and the world." 

A vast number of copies of the act were printed on mourning 
paper with black lines around it, and they were cried through the 
country as " the barbarous, cruel, bloody and inhuman murder." In 
many places the act was burnt with great solemnity in the presence 
of assembled multitudes. 

This act, so cruel and oppressive, inflamed the whole country, and 
everywhere awakened the most lively sympathy for Boston, the 
martyr city. The people of Salem, to whose town the Custom 
House and other offices of government were removed, generously 
refused to build their prosperity upon the ruins of their sister city ; 
and the inhabitants of Marblehead kindly offered the Bostonians the 
use of their harbor, wharves and warehouses, free of expense. 
Throughout the country public meetings were called, and from every 
point in the Colonies, the people of Boston received words of en- 
couragement, congratulation, sympathy, and unqualified approbation. 
The pens of the various Committees of Correspondence were active 
night and day, and every hill and valley, mountain and plain, from 
Plymouth to Georgia, was traversed by the couriers of these amanu- 
enses of the people's will. 

The House of Burgesses of Virginia was in session when the 
news of the Boston Port Bill arrived, and it was received with the 
utmost indignation. When the first burst of feeling had subsided, 
they resolved that the first of June (the day on which the bill was to 
take effect.) should be observed as a " day of fasting, humiliation and 
prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition in averting the 
heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights, and 
the evils of a civil war; to give us one heart and one mind, firmly 
to oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to American 
rights; and that the minds of his Majesty and his Parliament may 



chap, iv.] EVENTS OF 1774. 123 

Dissolution of the Virginia Assembly. Massachusetts Assembly removed from Boston. 

be inspired from above with wisdom, moderation, and justice, to 
remove from the loyal people of America all cause of danger from 
a continued pursuit of measures pregnant with their ruin." 

This example was followed in other places, and orators in public 
halls and ministers of the gospel in the pulpits, pronounced dis- 
courses peculiarly adapted to inflame the public mind, and nerve the 
popular arm in its position of defiance. The expressed sympathy 
of Virginia for the distress of their sister Colony, was highly offensive 
to Lord Dunmore, the Governor, and on the following day a 

a May 25. 

he dissolved them.* The members withdrew, and reassem- 
bled at the Raleigh tavern, to the number of eighty-one, and organ- 
ized themselves into an association and prepared an address to the 
people, recommending several measures which the exigencies of the 
times seemed to call for. Among them was a proposition for a Gene- 
ral Congress of deputies from all the Colonies ; and they recom- 
mended the Committee of Correspondence to communicate with the 
chief corresponding committees of other Colonies, on this vital subject. 
This proposition was eagerly accepted by all the provinces, and 
preparations were speedily made for the General Congress.f 

On this, as on several other occasions, a remarkable coincidence 
of opinion and action between the comparatively widely separated 
Colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts was exhibited, A similar- 
ity of expressed thought and resolution to act, existed simultaneously 
between them, without a possibility of previous conference. Only 
six days after the resolutions of the Virginians, recommending a 
general Congress, were framed, a similar recommendation was made 
by the patriots of Massachusetts. 

Pursuant to the provisions of the Boston Port Bill, General Gage 
took measures to transfer the government offices, and the place of 
Assembly of the Representatives, to Salem, on the first of June. 
On the thirty-first of May, the General Assembly met in Boston for 
the last time. General Gage, by proclamation, adjourned them until 
the seventh of June, to meet at Salem. Before adjourning, however, 
they appointed two Members of the Assembly, Samuel Adams, of 
Boston, and Mr. Warren, of Plymouth, to act during the interim, as 
the exigencies of the case might require, and then quietly separated. 
These two, with a few other chosen spirits, met in secret conference 
immediately, and on the ensuing evening, several others were intro- 

* His speech on the occasion was brief. " Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the 
House of Burgesses : — I have in my hand a paper published by order of your House, 
conceived in such terms as reflect highly upon his Majesty and the Parliament of 
Great Britain, which makes it necessary to dissolve you, and you are dissolved 
accordingly." j See Appendix, Note iv. 



124 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 

Secret meeting of Patriots. Appointment of Delegates to a general Congress. 

duced, when a discussion of general circumstances connected with 
the best interests of America, took place. On the third evening 
of their conference, their plans were matured and ripe for execution. 
Among these was a plan for a General Congress, to consult on the 
safety of America ; provisions made for supplying funds and muni- 
tions of war ; and an address to the other Colonies, inviting their 
co-operation in the measure of a General Congress, proposed. They 
also prepared resolutions exhorting the people to renounce, as far as 
possible, the consumption, not only of tea, but of all commodities 
imported from Great Britain or her Colonies. 

When the General Assembly met on the seventh of June, the 
result of the deliberations of these patriots was boldly laid before 
that. body. The partisans of the Crown were filled with amazement 
at the boldness with which the paternity of these treasonable mea- 
sures was avowed by men in that Assembly, of the highest standing 
and influence ;* and the consummate ability manifested in the elabo- 
ration of the scheme. Determined to have a vote of the Assembly 
on the plan, before the matter should become known to Governor 
Gage, the patriots had locked the doors, and allowed neither ingress 
nor egress. One of the members, warmly devoted to the government 
interest, feigned sudden illness, and he was allowed to depart. He 
immediately ran to the Governor, and acquainted him with the pro- 
ceedings in progress. Gage immediately sent his secretary to dis- 
solve the Assembly by proclamation. He found the doors locked, 
and was refused an entrance. He then read the proclamation of dis- 
solution on the stairs, but it was little heeded by the patriots within, 
who proceeded to the adoption of their proposed plan of future action, 
and appointed delegates to the General Congress. 

Virginia held her Assembly for the appointment of delegates to 
Congress on the twenty-sixth of August, at Williamsburg ; Mary- 
land at Annapolis ; South Carolina at Charleston ; Pennsylvania at 
Philadelphia ; Connecticut at New London ; Rhode Island at New- 
port ; and before the close of August, a full representation from 
twelve of the Colonies was elected and furnished with credentials. 
No province sent less than two, nor more titan seven Representatives. 

The committee of five appointed by the Massachusetts Assembly, 
at the head of which was Samuel Adams, prepared a document entitled 
a " Solemn League and Covenant," in which all the non-importation 
agreements and all resolutions against commercial intercourse with the 
mother country, were concentrated. All who felt an attachment to the 

* Hancock, Samuel Adams, Cushing, Hawley, Robert T. Payne, Greenleaf, and 
others of that character. 



chap, iv.] EVENTS OF 1774. 125 

The Patriots' " Solemn League and Covenant." Distress in Boston. 

American cause were called upon to sign it ; and the covenanters were 
required to obligate themselves, in the presence of God, to cease 
all commerce with England, dating from the last of the ensuing 
month of August, until the late wicked acts of Parliament should be 
repealed, and the Massachusetts Colony reinstated in all its rights 
and privileges ; to abstain from the use of any British goods what- 
soever ; and to avoid all commerce or traffic with those who refused 
to sign the League. Finally, it was covenanted that those who 
refused to sign the League, should be held up to public scorn and 
indignation, by the publication of their names. The articles of the 
League were transmitted by circulars, to all the other provinces, 
with invitations to the inhabitants to affix their names thereto. Phi- 
ladelphia alone, as a city, did not accept the invitation to join in such 
a measure, preferring to refer the matter to the General Congress, 
and agreeing to execute faithfully all measures therein agreed upon. 
As soon as this act of the Assembly committee was known to 
General Gage, he issued a proclamation denouncing the League as an 
unlawful combination, hostile and traitorous to the Crown and Par- 
liament, and ordered the magistrates to apprehend and bring to trial, 
all guilty of signing it. But his proclamation was laughed at ; his 
orders were totally disregarded, and the League was everywhere 
subscribed to. 

On the first of June, at twelve o'clock at noon, the Custom-house 
at Boston was closed, and the port was shut against every vessel that 
wished to enter ; and on the fourteenth, permission to depart was 
refused to all that had entered before. To sustain and enforce these 
harsh measures, General Gage had introduced two regiments of 
troops into Boston, and they were encamped on the Common. These 
were soon reinforced by several regiments from Halifax, Quebec, 
New York and Ireland ; and Boston became an immense garrison. 

The utter prostration of all business soon produced great distress 
in the city ; but supplies (inadequate to their wants it is true) were 
sent in from all quarters, not only from the interior towns of that 
province, but from other Colonies also, and even from the city of 
London.* The fortitude of the inhabitants under this calamity was 
great in the extreme. The rich, deprived of their rents, were be- 
coming poor, and the poor, deprived of their privilege of labor, were 
soon distressed, and thus all classes felt the scourge of the oppressor. 
General Gage was warned from time to time, that the people would 

The inhabitants of Georgia presented to those of Boston sixty-three barrels of 
rice, and one hundred and twenty-four pounds sterling in specie. The city of Lon. 
don subscribed thirty thousand pounds sterling for the poor of Boston. From Sco 
harie, New York, five hundred and twenty-five bushels of wheat were sent 



126 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 

Prcp-ir;i*i ms for War. Suspension of Magisterial Functions. 

soon resort to arms ; but, seeming to rely upon the physical strength 
of the battalions with which he was surrounded, he disregarded these 
warnings in a measure, but deemed it prudent to take precautionary 
steps in contravention of such action by the people. Under the 
shallow pretext of preventing the desertion of his soldiers, Genera] 
Gage placed a strong guard upon the narrow isthmus which connects 
the peninsula on which Boston is situated, with the main land, known 
as Boston Neck. The people at once saw the real motive of this 
movement — to prevent the inhabitants from having free access with 
those of the country, and restraining them from transporting arms 
from the city to other places in the province. This measure justly 
alarmed the inhabitants, and those who were disposed to adopt con- 
ciliatory measures which the great majority deemed humiliating,* 
now plainly saw that nothing short of absolute submission to military 
rule would be accepted by their rulers. Persuaded that war was 
inevitable, the people at once commenced arming themselves, and 
daily practised military tactics. On every side was heard the fife 
and drum, and young and old, fathers and sons, were daily engaged 
in martial exercises, encouraged at every step by the approbation and 
aid of the gentler sex. Everything bore the impress of impending 
War. 

In the meanwhile, the civil magistrates had suspended the exer- 
cise of their functions, as those newly appointed, had either declined 
acceptance, or were prevented by popular sentiment and the popular 
will from acting in their several offices. Nearly all of the thirty-six 
new counsellors who had been appointed by the Governor, either 
declined or were forced to resign by the unequivocal demonstrations 
of public disfavor which they experienced at every turn. The 
courts of justice were suspended; the attorneys who had issued writs 
of citation were compelled to ask pardon in the public journals, and 
promise not to expedite others, until the laws should be revoked and 
the charters reestablished. The people rushed in a throng to occupy 

* There were a few timid persons of some significance, who were willing at this 
stage of the controversy to offer conciliatory measures, and they even gave some 
slight encouragement to General Gage and his government. One hundred and 
twenty merchants and others, of Boston, signed an address to General Gage, ex- 
pressing a willingness to pay for the tea destroyed. It is averred that some of the 
wealthier people of Boston endeavored to raise money to pay the East India Com- 
pany for the tea, but the attempt i'ailed. There were some others who protested 
against the course of the Committee of Correspondence, and the action of a large por- 
tion of the ministers of the gospel, who, they averred, were unduly exciting the peo- 
ple, and urging them headlong towards ruin. But these movements were productive 
only of mischief. They made the Colonists more determined, and deluded the 
English government with the false idea that the most respectable portion of the 
Colonists were averse to revolution. 



chap, iv.] EVENTS OF 1774. 127 

Fortification of Boston Neck. Reported Massacre of the people by the Soldiers. 

the seats of justice, that no room might be left for the judges ; when 
invited to withdraw, they answered that they recognised no other 
tribunals, and no other magistrates, but such as were established by 
ancient laws and usage.* 

General Gage, witnessing the agitation of the people, their tone of 
stern defiance, and their warlike preparations, at once commenced 
fortifying Boston Neck, and seized and removed to head-quarters all 
the gunpowder and other military stores that were at Charlestown, 
Cambridge, and some other places. This act greatly exasperated 
the people. From all quarters of the province the people assembled, 
and with arms hastened to Cambridge with a design of attacking 
the troops in Boston. This, however, was prevented by the influ- 
ence of the more prudent of the leading patriots. An event soon 
after occurred, which must have convinced General Gage of the unity 
of the people, their zeal in the cause of freedom, and their compe- 
tent physical force to maintain their cause. A rumor went 
forth" that the ships of war were cannonading Boston, and 
the regular troops massacreing the inhabitants without distinction of 
age or sex.f This news spread like wild-fire throughout Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut, and in less than thirty-six hours, the country was 
rallied for more than one hundred and seventy miles in extent. From 
the shores of Long Island to the green hills of Berkshire, " to arms ! 
to arms !" was the universal cry. Instantly, nothing was seen on all 
sides, but men of all ages cleansing and burnishing their arms, and 
furnishing themselves with provisions and warlike stores, and pre- 
paring for an immediate march ; gentlemen of rank and fortune 
exhorting and encouraging others by their advice and example. The 
roads were soon crowded with armed men marching for Boston with 
great rapidity, but without noise or tumult. No boisterous mirth or 
irregularity of any kind, attended their march, but silent firmness 
and invincible determination were portrayed in every face.| Full 
thirty thousand men were under arms and speeding towards Boston ; 
nor did they halt until well assured that the report was untrue. 

On the twenty-third of August, the other two acts of Parliament 
arrived, the oppressive character of which put an end to every hope 
or expectation of reconciliation. The people plainly saw the mana- 
cles about to be placed upon them, and the violence of determined 



* Otis's Botta, vol. i., p. 124. 

t It is thought by some that this rumor was set afloat by the patriot chiefs to let the 
British soldiers perceive that if they should venture to offer the shadow of violence, 
a signal to the inhabitants of the province would suffice to make them repent of it. 

X Hinman's Historical Collection from official Records, Files, &c, of the part 
sustained by Connecticut during the War of the Revolution. Hartford : 1342. 



128 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 

Indignation spreading over the Colonies. Massachusetts' Provincial Congress. 

resistance was doubled. The more moderate patriots, and those who 
had hoped almost against hope for an accommodation, now either 
joined the active ones, or stood in silent dismay. Many districts, 
which hitherto had been little more than passive followers of the more 
active sections, on learning this breach of their chartered rights, burst 
into a flame of indignation ; and Connecticut, which had always 
pursued a conservative course, joined the others with the greatest 
ardor. War was now inevitable, and all hearts were yearning for 
the meeting of the Congress appointed to convene at Philadelphia on 
the fifth of September. 

The people of Boston became so exasperated because of the for- 
tifications going on upon the isthmus, that, without coming to an 
open rupture with the troops, they threw every impediment in the 
way of their labor, burning the materials by night, sinking boats 
laden with bricks, and overturning the wagons that were carrying the 
timber. 

A meeting of delegates from all the neighboring towns was held 
at the beginning of September, in spite of the Governor's proclama- 
tion to the contraiy. They resolved, " That no obedience was due 
to any part of the late acts of Parliament, which ought to be rejected 
as the attempt of a wicked administration : — That it should be re- 
commended to the collectors of taxes and all other officers, who 
had public moneys in their hands, to retain the same, and not to 
make any payment thereof until the civil government of that province 
should be placed upon its old foundation, or until it should be other- 
wise ordered by the proposed General Congress : — That the persons 
who had accepted seats in the Council, by virtue of a mandamus 
from the King, had acted in direct violation of the duty they owed to 
their countr) 7 : and that all of them who did not resign before the 
twentieth of September should be considered as obstinate and incor- 
rigible enemies to their country : — That the late act, establishing the 
Roman Catholic religion in Quebec, was dangerous in an extreme 
degree to the protestant religion, and to the rights and liberties of 
all America : — That whereas, their enemies had flattered themselves 
that they should make an easy prey of a numerous and brave people, 
from a notion that they were unacquainted with military discipline, 
such persons should be elected in each town as militia officers, as 
were judged to be of good capacity, and inflexible friends to the 
rights of the people, while the inhabitants of the towns should use 
their utmost diligence to acquaint themselves with the art of war, 
and for that purpose, appear under arms at least once a week : — 
That they were determined to act on the defensive so long as such 
conduct might be vindicated by reason, and the principle of self 



chap, iv.] EVENTS OF 1774. 129 



Provincial commotions throughout the Colonies. 



preservation, but no longer : — That, as it was understood to be in 
contemplation by the Governor to apprehend sundry persons, the 
people were recommended, should such arrests be made, to seize 
and keep every servant of the present government, until those persons 
so apprehended should be restored uninjured," &c. They also drew 
up an address to General Gage, complaining of the fortifications car- 
rying on at Boston Neck, and telling him, that although they had no 
inclination to commence hostilities, they were nevertheless determined 
not to submit to any of the late acts of the British Parliament. To this 
Gage replied, thai it was ms duty to preserve the peace, to pre- 
serve the lives of his soldiers, and to erect such works as should 
prevent their being surprised ; and the cannon placed in battery 
on Boston Neck would never be used unless to repel hostile proceed- 
ings.* 

During the latter part of July and the whole month of August, 
popular commotions, sometimes violent, were witnessed in all parts 
of the country. Alarmed at the seizure of arms and ammunition 
at Cambridge, the people in other places took measures to prevent a 
like occurrence. At Charlestown, they took possession of the maga- 
zine. At Portsmouth, New Hampshire, they stormed the fort,t and 
carried off the powder and artillery. At Newport, Rhode Island, 
the people did the same, and took possession of forty pieces of can- 
non which defended the harbor. The more southern Colonies 
embraced the cause with great fervor. Newbern, in North Carolina, 
reechoed all the declarations of Virginia. Governor Bull wrote from 
Charleston, South Carolina, that the spirit of resistance was violent 
and universal. The Assembly, he said, though summoned at ten, 
met at eight o'clock in the morning ; on learning which, he hastened 
to the place, but before he could arrive, five delegates to Congress 
were elected. At Wilmington, the people determined to send sup- 
plies to Boston, " to alleviate her distress, and induce her to maintain 
with prudence and firmness, the glorious cause in which she at 
present suffered. From Savannah, Sir James Wright wrote and 
complained of the " phrensy among the people," and of their lawless 
proceedings. Virginia, as we have already seen, took, simultane- 
ously with Boston, the foremost step. At a convention held at 
Williamsburgh, in August, they appointed delegates to the General 
Congress, among whom was* the immortal Washington. Pennsyl- 
vania was firm but moderate. Governor Penn had been solicited in 
vain, to call an Assembly ; the people therefore met in July in con- 
vention, at Philadelphia, and appointed Delegates to the General 

* Gordon. f Fort William and Mary. 



130 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 



Appointment of Delegates to the General Congress. First idea of Independence. 

Congress. The meeting drew up instructions* to these delegates, 
expressing in strong terms their distress at the unhappy differences 
existing between Great Britain and her American Colonies, and their 
ardent desire for a reconciliation. t It was also declared that, pro- 
vided the mother country would renounce the rights of internal legis- 
lation and taxation, and consent to the liberation of Boston, they 
would consider it expedient to satisfy the East India Company, and 
to grant to his Majesty a certain annual revenue. Mr. Dickenson 
also wrote to Mr. Otis, and attempted to cool what he considered the 
intemperate zeal of the patriots of Massachusetts ; but Mr. Otis very 
properly replied, that Pennsylvania, bearing a much lighter burden 
than they, could not well appreciate their impulsive movements ; 
and he expressed a dread of the prevalence of lukewarmness and 
timidity, now in the darkest hour of trial, which would inevitably 
enslave them 4 New York gave the government greater support 
than any other Colony. The whole province was comparatively 
tranquil, although zeal and activity in the cause of freedom were 
not wanting. The Assembly refused to elect delegates to the 
General Congress, and they were appointed by town meetings. § 

* These were framed by John Dickenson, the author of " Letters of a Pennsylva- 
nia Farmer." 

■f It is not easy to determine at what precise date the idea of Independence was 
first entertained by the principal persons in America. English writers, arguing 
from the conduct of the Colonists, have commonly charged them with secretly har- 
boring such designs at a very early period. This is not probable. The spirit and 
form of their institutions, it is true, led them to act frequently as an independent 
people, and to set up high claims in regard to their rights and privileges ; but there 
is no sufficient evidence to prove that any province, or any number of prominent 
individuals, entertained serious thoughts of separating entirely from the mother 
country, till very near the actual commencement of the War of the Revolution. 

It was the belief before the meeting of the Congress, particularly of the more 
cautious and moderate, that petitions to the King and Parliament, by a body of 
Representatives assembled from all parts of the Colonies, would be respected, and, 
in the end, procure redress. They, on the contrary, who, like Washington, had no 
confidence in the success of this measure, looked forward to the probable appeal to 
arms, but still without any other anticipations, than, by a resolute vindication of 
their rights, to effect a change in the conduct and policy of the British government, 
and restore the Colonies to their former condition. It was not till these petitions 
were rejected with a show of indifference, if not of contempt, that the eyes of all 
were opened to the necessity of unconditional submission, or united resistance. 
From that time the word independence was boldly pronounced, and soon became a 
familiar sound to the ears of the whole people. — Sparks's Life of Washington 
(i. vol.), p. 122. 

% Pitkin, vol. i., p. 274. 

§ To show what unanimity of feeling and absence of party was exhibited by the 
people, the following extract is given : — 

" By duly certified polls, taken by proper persons, in seven Wards, it appears 
that James Duane, John Jay, Philip Livingston, Isaac Low, and John Alsop, Esqs., 
were elected as delegates for the city and county of New York, to attend the Con- 



Jk^ 



chap, iv.] EVENTS OF 1774. 131 

Meeting of Congress. Character of its Members. 

held at various places in the province. It will be perceived, that, 
notwithstanding the obstacles thrown in the way by Colonial Govern- 
ors and the friends of the home government, twelve of the thirteen 
Colonies appointed delegates to the Congress ; an assembly, for the 
result of the deliberations of which, all hearts beat high with hope — 
the patriot expectant of vigorous measures of resistance, and the 
lukewarm and the royalist, equally expectant of reconciliation. 

On the fifth of September, the General Congress met at 
Philadelphia. They assembled in Carpenter's Hall, Chestnut street, 
and organized by the appointment of Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, 
President, and Charles Thomson, Secretary. There were fifty-five 
delegates appointed, representing twelve of the thirteen Colonies ;* 
and all were present at the organization except those from North 
Carolina, who did not arrive until the fourteenth of the month. All 
of them w r ere men of much local and general influence ; all well known 
for their ability and virtues, in their respective provinces, and many 
of them possessing a popularity as extensive as the Anglo-American 
domain. They were chiefly men of fortune, and nearly all of them 
landed proprietors. They had been faithful students of mankind and 
the history of the race ; and not one of them lacked ample know- 
ledge of the great principles which impelled them to form that con- 
vocation. And their own sound judgment and discretion, their own 
purity of purpose and integrity of conduct, were fortified and strength- 
ened by the voice of the people in popular assemblies, embodied in 
written instructions for the guidance of their Representatives. Such 
were the men to whose keeping, as instruments of Providence, 
the destinies of America were for the time intrusted ; and it has 
been well remarked, that men other than such as these — an ignorant, 
untaught mass like those who have formed the physical elements of 
other revolutionary movements, without sufficient intellect to guide 
and control them — could not have conceived, planned, and carried 
into execution, such a mighty movement, and one so fraught with 



gress at Philadelphia, the first day of September next, and at a meeting of the 
committees of several districts in the county of Westchester, the same gentlemen 
were appointed to represent that county ; also by a letter from Jacob Lansing, jun. , 
chairman in behalf of the committee for Albany, it appears that city and county had 
adopted the same for their delegates.. By another letter it appears that the committees 
from the several districts in the county of Duchess, had likewise adopted the same, 
as delegates, to represent that county in Congress, and that committees of other 
towns approve of them as delegates. By a writing duly attested, it appears, the 
county of Suffolk, in the Colony of New York, have appointed Colonel William 
Floyd, to represent them in Congress." — Credentials of the Delegates from JYetff 
York. Journal of the First Continental Congress (Folwell), September 5, 1774. 
* See Appendix, Note III. 



132 THE WAR OP INDEPENDENCE. [1114. 

■ Pitt's Opinion of the Congress. What was expected of it. 

tangible marks of political wisdom, as the American Revolution. 
And it is no unmerited panegyric or idle boast to say that there 
never assembled the same number of men, who, for intellect, sound 
judgment, discretion, purity and disinterestedness, were superior 
to those fifty-five representatives of the twelve English States of 
North America. Pitt, the great English statesman, after reading the 
various documents which they put forth during the session, gave the 
following testimonial concerning their wisdom : ' I must declare and 
avow that in all my reading and study — and it has been my favorite 
study — I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the 
master states of the world — that for solidity of reasoning, force of 
sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of 
circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to 
the General Congress at Philadelphia.' " 

" For a long time," says the eloquent Charles Botta, " no specta- 
cle had been offered to the attention of mankind, of so powerful an 
interest, as this of the present American Congress. It was indeed a 
novel thing, and, as it were, miraculous, that a nation, hitherto almost 
unknown to the people of Europe, or only known by the commerce it 
occasionally exercised in their ports, should, all at once, step forth 
from this state of oblivion, and, rousing as from a long slumber, 
should seize the reins to govern itself; that the various parts of 
this nation, hitherto disjointed, and almost in opposition to each other, 
should now be united in one body, and moved by a single will ; that 
their long and habitual obedience should be suddenly changed for 
the intrepid counsels of resistance, and of open defiance to the for- 
midable nation whence they derived their origin and laws."* 

To this Assembly, all hearts were turned with the deepest anxiety. 
It was universally felt that their acts would be the pivot on which 
the destinies of the Colonies must turn. It was generally believed, 
that the acts of such a body of men would be treated with regard by 
the British government, and that their appeals would be carefully 
listened to and respectfully heeded by ministers ; and therefore it 
was felt that they had the power, either to remove the evils com- 
plained of through the medium of conciliation, or to remove them by 
an appeal to arms. A desire for a reconciliation on honorable terms 
was wide-spread, although it cannot be doubted that there were many 
who secretly wished for a state of political independence ; but such a 
sentiment not having been avowed by the voice of public assemblies, 
it is a fair inference that the General Congress met with a full de 
termination to effect a reconciliation, if possible, with the mother 

* Otis's Botta, vol. i., p. 128. 



chap, iv.] EVENTS OF 1774. 133 

European Sympathy. Patrick Henry's Prediction- 

country.* Looking abroad, the Congress saw that a decisive blow 
for independence would be popular, even among a large portion of 
the inhabitants of Great Britain, who sympathized with their Ame- 
rican brethren ; while the people, and even some of the govern- 
ments of continental Europe, would have rejoiced at the consumma- 
tion of such an act. France and Spain, the sworn enemies of the 
English, would gladly have contributed all that definitive treaties 
would allow, to produce such a result. Although political writers 
in Europe were beginning to be more liberal, and advocated pretty 
freely more popular forms of government, yet the encouragement the 
Americans would have received at that time from continental Europe 
would have been the offspring of hatred of Great Britain, rather than 
of good will to the cause of Human Freedom, or an affinity to the 
avowed principles which actuated the men then in Congress assem- 
bled. But the Congress was determined not to present the least 
foundation for a charge of rushing madly into an unnatural contest, 
without presenting the olive branch of peace ; and it therefore, 
during its whole session, directed all its functions in a channel calcu- 
lated to secure rights withheld and principles violated ; and that 
channel was a satisfactory reconciliation, honorable alike to both 
parties. With these sentiments, and an intense desire for their 
country's welfare, the Delegates commenced their labors. 

On the second day of the session, Congress adopted a resolution, 
" That the door be kept shut during the time of business, and that 
the members consider themselves under the strongest obligations of 
honor, to keep the proceedings secret, until the majority shall direct 

* There were some who, from the first, seemed to have a presentiment that recon- 
ciliation was out of the question. Among these was Patrick Henry. As early as 
1773, he uttered the following prediction. Speaking of Great Britain, he said, 
" She will drive us to extremities; no accommodation will take place ; hostilities 
will soon commence ; and a desperate and bloody touch it will be." This, Mr. 
Wirt asserts, was said in the presence of Colonel Samuel Overton, who at once 
asked Mr. Henry if he thought the Colonies sufficiently strong to oppose success- 
fully the fleets and armies of Great Britain ? " I will be candid with you," replied 
Mr. Henry ; " I doubt whether we shall be able, alone, to cope with so powerful 
a nation ; but," continued he, rising from his chair with great animation, " where 
is France ? Where is Spain ? Where is Holland ? the natural enemies of Great 
Britain. Where will they be all this while ? Do you suppose they will stand 
by, idle and indifferent spectators to the contest ? Will Louis XVI. be asleep all 
this time ? Believe me, no ! When Louis XVI. shall be satisfied by our serious 
opposition, and our Declaration of Independence, that all prospect of a reconcilia- 
tion is gone, then, and not till then, will he furnish us with arms, ammunition and 
clothing ; and not with them only, but he will send his fleets and armies to fight our 
battles for us ; he will form a treaty with us, offensive and defensive, against our 
unnatural mother. Spain and Holland will join the confederation ! Our independ- 
ence will be established ! and we shall take our stand among the nations of the 
earth !" How literally these predictions were soon fulfilled, the pen of History has 
already recorded. 



134 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 

Various Important Acts of Congress. 

them to be made public." The Delegates then proceeded to consider 
the deplorable state of Boston and the Massachusetts Colony in 
general ; and addressed a letter to General Gage praying him to ter- 
minate hostile preparations that inflamed the people and would drive 
them into a war ; to repress military license, and restore a free 
intercourse between the city and the country. They then adopted, 
and ordered to be printed, a Declaration of Rights, setting forth that 
Parliament had of late years undertaken to tax the Colonies ; to 
establish an extraordinary Board of Customs ; to extend the jurisdic- 
tion of the court of admiralty ; to grant salaries to judges, without 
the concurrence of the Colonial Assemblies ; to maintain a standing 
army in times of peace ; to ordain that persons charged with offences 
affecting the State, should be conveyed to England for trial ; to sub- 
vert the regulations of the government of Massachusetts Bay, 
respecting the prosecution of those who should be questioned for 
acts committed in the execution of the laws, and in opposition to 
tumults ; and, finally, to abolish the English laws in Canada, and to 
grant extraordinary favor to the Roman Catholics in that province. 
They pronounced the foregoing acts of Parliament impolitic, unjust, 
cruel, contrary to the constitution, and dangerous to, and destructive 
of, American rights. They stated, that this Congress had been 
convoked because the various Assemblies in the several provinces 
had been repeatedly dissolved by the Governors, and this was the 
only means left them to vindicate and secure their rights and liber- 
ties. They then enumerated their rights, such as life, liberty and 
property, and the rights peculiar to English subjects — participation 
in the legislative council ; of being tried by their Peers of the vici- 
nage, and also of peaceably assembling and addressing their petitions 
to the King. They also protested against keeping a standing army 
here without the consent of the Colonies, and in conclusion, recapi- 
tulated the various acts of Parliament which they deemed violations 
of these rights. 

During the session, Congress adopted a new non-consumption, 
non-importation, and non-exportation agreement, which* was signed 
by all the members. Also an address of the several Colonies to the 
people of Great Britain ; a memorial to the several Anglo-American 
Colonies ; an address to the inhabitants of the province of Quebec, 
and a petition to the King.* The petition was sent to the Colonial 
agents then in England, with instructions to put it into the hands of 
the King ; and with the information that it was their determination 

* These important documents, embodying the sentiments and spirit of our revo- 
lutionary fathers, are published in full in the Appendix, Note IV. They are 
carefully copied from the Journals of the First Continental Congress. 



chap, iv.] EVENTS OF 1774. 135 

Provision for a New Congress. Approbation of the Provincial Assembly. 

to meet again in May, of the ensuing year.* The Congress also ad- 
dressed letters to the Colonies of St. John's, Nova Scotia, Georgia 
and the Floridas, inviting their cooperation. A resolution was also 
adopted declaring that on the arrest of any person in America, in order 
to transport such person beyond the sea, for trial of offences com- 
mitted in America, resistance and reprisals should be made. Some 
of these measures were considered rather bold by a few timid spirits 
who hoped for a reconciliation, and they were disposed to sign a 
protest ; but the zealous determination of the eastern patriots pre- 
vented a step which would have been so inimical to the best interests 
of the country at that crisis. " I should advise," said Samuel Ad- 
ams, " persisting in our struggle for liberty, though it was revealed 
from heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were to perish, and 
only one of a thousand were to survive and retain his liberty ! One 
such freeman must possess more virtue, and enjoy more happiness 
than a thousand slaves ; and let him propagate his like, and transmit 
to them what he hath so nobly preserved !" 

Having finished these various labors, they appointed the tenth of 
May of the following year for the convocation of another General 
Congress, provided the grievances of which they complained 
were not removed, and then adjourned. 

The transactions of the Congress were received with universal 
favor throughout the Colonies by the people at public meetings, and 
by the provisional authorities and regular assemblies when convened. 
The Pennsylvania Assembly was the first to ratify their proceedings, 
and appoint deputies for the next Congress. The people of Mary- 
land displayed great ardor, and the most influential citizens were 
proud in being armed for their country's defence. The militia were 
exercised daily, and were withdrawn from the authority of the Go- 
vernor and placed under that of the province. New Hampshire and 
Delaware followed this example ; and South Carolina acted with 
prompt energy in responding cordially to the proceedings of the 
Congress. The ardor of the people of Massachusetts and Virginia 
was without bounds, and warlike preparations were seen on every 
side. In the New England provinces, the ministers of the gospel 
did signal service in the good cause. Their influence was very great 
over their flocks, and when from their pulpits they proclaimed that 
the cause of freedom was the cause of heaven, the sentiment met 
a sympathetic response in almost every bosom. 

New York alone marred the general unanimity of the Colonies. 
In the city there was much party division, and when the act of Con- 

* These agents were Paul Wentworth, Benjamin Franklin, William Bolan, 
Arthur Lee, Thomas Life, Edmund Burke, and Charles Garth. 



136 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 

Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. Origin of the names " Whig " and " Tory." 

gress concerning the regulation of commerce with Great Britain, 
was laid before them, they refused to adopt it. New York was 
then, as now, the chief commercial depot of America ; and this fact, 
connected with the great influence of the large proportion of loyal- 
ists* resident in the Colony, caused the non-consumption and non- 
importation agreement especially, to be unpalatable. 

In Massachusetts, another demonstration of the determined will 
of the people in maintaining their just rights, took place at Salem. 
Governor Gage had issued writs calling the General Assembly to- 
gether on the fifth of October, to meet at that place ; but, perceiving 
the firm and decided tone of the General Congress, then still in ses- 
sion, he thought it expedient to countermand the order, and issued 
a proclamation accordingly. The election, however, had taken 
place, and the representatives, declaring the proclamation unlawful, 
met at the time appointed to the number of ninety. They resolved 
themselves into a provincial Congress, unsanctioned, of course, by 
the Governor, and elected John Hancock their president. They then 
adjourned to Concord, where they were joined by others who were 
not elected, or at least were not present, at their first organization. 
The first measure of the Congress was to appoint a committee to 
wait upon Governor Gage with a remonstrance on the subject of the 
fortifications of the isthmus. To this the Governor replied, that no 
offensive hostility was contemplated in the erection of those defences, 
but seeing the warlike spirit, and bitter enmity of the people, he felt 
it his duty to be prepared for any needful defence. He pronounced 
their assembly illegal, and in contravention of the charter of the 
province. 

* It was at this time that the appellation of Tory was applied to the royalists, and 
the term Whig assumed by the patriots. The origin of the term Whig is vari- 
ously given. Bishop Burnet, in his " History of his Own Times," gives the fol- 
lowing explanation : " The southwest counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough 
to serve them round the year ; and the northern parts producing more than they 
need, those in the west come in the summer to buy at Leith the stores that come 
from the north, and from a word, whiggam, used in driving their horses, all that 
drove were called whiggamores, and shorter, the whiggs. Now, in that year, after 
the news came down of Duke Hamilton's defeat, the ministers animated their peo- 
ple to rise and march to Edinburgh, and then came up marching at the head of their 
parishes, with unheard-of fury, praying and preaching all the way as they came. 
The Marquis of Argyle and his party came and headed them, they being about six 
thousand. This was called the Whiggamore's inroad, and ever after that, all that 
opposed the court came, in contempt, to be called Whigg ; and from Scotland, the 
word was brought into England, where it is now one of our unhappy terms of dis- 
tinction." Subsequently all whose party bias was democratic, were called Whigs. 
The origin of the word Tory is not so well attested. The Irish malcontents, half 
robbers and half insurgents, who harassed the English in Ireland, at the period of 
the massacre in 1040, were the first to whom this epithet was applied. It was also 
applied to the court party as a term of reproach. 



chap, iv.] EVENTS OF 1774. 1 37 

Enrolment of u Minute Men." General Defection from the British Government. 

On the return of the committee, the Congress adjourned to Cam- 
bridge, where they proceeded to elaborate a plan for the military 
defence of the province. They made provision for ammunition* and 
military stores, which were speedily collected at Concord, the de- 
signated depot. They also made provision for arming the whole 
province. Twelve thousand of the militia were enrolled under the 
title of minute men, who were to be ready to march to battle at a 
minute's warning. They sent invitations to Connecticut and Rhode 
Island to follow their example, and increase their number of minute 
men to twenty thousand, which request was promptly complied with, 
and its suggestions as promptly executed. Committees of Safety, 
of Supplies, &c, were appointed, and two military men, Jedediah 
Preble and Artemas Ward, who had had considerable experience in 
the French and Indian wars, were chosen generals of the provincial 
militia or other troops that might be raised. 

These warlike preparations alarmed the friends of government in 
the vicinity of Boston, and many of them fled into the city for pro- 
tection ; but the stringent measures of the patriots were fast crip- 
pling the resources and strength of Governor Gage. It was with the 
greatest difficulty that he could procure carpenters and masons to 
erect barracks outside of the city for his troops ; and as no supplies 
of provisions, at all adequate to his wants, could be procured from 
the country, he was obliged to receive all that he needed, by sea, from 
distant places. In this state of things, Governor Gage became 
alarmed, and apprehending that the people of Boston might point 
his own cannon upon the fortifications against him, he caused a party 
of sailors to be landed by night from the ships of war in the harbor, 
to spike all the guns upon one of the town batteries.! 

When the Congress adjourned," the whole country had 
become thoroughly aroused, and there seemed to be no other 
alternative than quiet submission or a resort to arms. The execu- 
tive and legislative powers in the Colonies had become completely 
transposed. The ancient forms of government remained, but new 
laws were enacted, and all authority was taken from the Governors 
and their Councils, and vested in the provincial Assemblies. All 
authority on the part of government officers was terminated, and a 
revolution, bloodless as yet, was already effected, which many hoped 
might result in permanent independence, or a thorough disenthral- 
ment from the oppressions which had driven them to this extreme. 
They hoped these energetic measures would convince the British 

* Mills were erected for making gunpowder; manufactories were set up for 
making arms, and great encouragement was offered for making saltpetie. — Stedman. 
t Pictorial History of the Reign of George III., vol. i., p. 189. 



138 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 

Instructions to, and activity of, the Colonial Agents in England. 

government of the futility of attempting to coerce the Colonies into an 
abandonment of their principles so clearly understood and universally 
avowed, that it would apply itself in earnest to give another direction 
to American affairs — a direction calculated to insure, through just 
and liberal measures, permanent loyalty to the British crown. 

While these stirring scenes were transpiring in America, Doctor 
Franklin and the other Colonial agents in England were exceedingly 
active in moulding the public mind there, as far as they were able, 
in favor of the cause of the Colonies. Every possible means was 
used to give a general circulation to the addresses to the people of 
Great Britain, and to the King, which Congress had adopted ;* and 
Franklin, assisted by other friends of America (some of them Mem- 
bers of Parliament), traversed all the manufacturing towns of the north 
of England,! and by personal communications enlightened the inhabit- 
ants upon the great question at issue, on which subject they were 
kept in profound ignorance by their own countrymen, as far as with- 

* On the twenty-sixth of October, the day on which Congress adjourned, the 
following letter of instructions to the Colonial agents in England, written by Mr. 
Jay, was adopted by Congress : 

" Philadelphia, Oct. 26, 1774. 

" Gentlemen : — We give you the strongest proof of our reliance on your zeal and 
attachment to the happiness of America and the cause of liberty, when we commit 
the enclosed paper to your care. 

" We desire you will deliver the petition into the hands of his Majesty, and after 
it has been presented, we wish it may be made public through the press, together 
with the list of grievances. And as we hope for great assistance from the spirit, 
virtue and justice of the nation, it is our earnest desire, that the most effectual care 
be taken, as early as possible, to furnish the trading cities and manufacturing 
towns, throughout the United Kingdom, with our memorial to the people of Great 
Britain. 

" We doubt not but your good sense and discernment will lead you to avail your- 
selves of every assistance that may be derived from the advice and friendship of all 
great and good men, who may incline to aid the cause of liberty and mankind. 

" The gratitude of America expressed in the enclosed vote of thanks,* we desire 
may be conveyed to the deserving objects of it, in the manner you think will be 
most acceptable to them. 

" It is proposed, that another Congress be held on the tenth of May next, at this 
place ; but in the meantime, we beg the favor of you, gentlemen, to transmit to the 
Speakers of the several Assemblies, the earliest information of the most authentic 
accounts you can collect, of all such conduct and designs of ministry, or Parliament, 
as it may concern America to know. We are, with unfeigned esteem and regard, 
gentlemen," &c, &c. — Journal of Congress, 1774. 

f The manufacturers of these districts were chiefly dissenters, and viewing the 
established church somewhat in the light of an oppressor, their loyalty was quite 
as weak as that of any class of the population. 

* Resolved, That this Congress, in their own names, and in behalf of all those whom they repre- 
sent, do present their most grateful acknowledgments to those truly noble, honorable, and patriotic 
advocates of civil and religious liberty, who have so generously and powerfully, though unsuccess- 
fully, espoused and defended the cause of America both in and out of Parliament. 



chai-. tv.] EVENTS OF 1774. 139 

Employment of Dr. Roebuck by Ministers. Meeting of a New Parliament. 

holding the truth was feasible. At this movement, ministers and 
their friends became alarmed, and at once applied themselves to the 
execution of measures to counteract their efforts. The celebrated 
Adam Smith,* in concert with Wedderburn, the Solicitor General, 
applied to Doctor Roebuck, an eminent physician of Birmingham, 
and who was very popular among the manufacturing population, 
earnestly urging him to follow in the wake of Franklin and others, 
and if possible, undo the mischief so called, which they had done. 
Doctor Roebuck complied with their wishes, but how far he suc- 
ceeded in effecting the desired result, cannot be estimated. 

The Parliament which had been dissolved by proclamation, and 
writs issued for the election of new members on the thirtieth of 
September, was convened on the thirtieth of November. Although 
the proceedings of Congress and the approval thereof of all the 
Colonies were not so verily certified as to be fully understood in 
Britain at the opening of Parliament, yet sufficient was known to 
cause the King in his address from the throne to speak of the Colo- 
nies as in a state of almost open rebellion. He declared that a dar- 
ing spirit of resistance and disobedience to law prevailed in Massa- 
chusetts Bay, and that unwarrantable attempts had been made to 
obstruct the commerce of the kingdom by unlawful combinations ; 
and assured Parliament that he had already adopted, and should con- 
tinue to adopt, decisive measures to accomplish the establishment 
of subordination in that Colony, as well as in all the others, many 
of which, he said, were guilty of being abettors of the revolutionists 
of New England. An address to the King and ministers, in the 
usual form, was moved, but the opposition endeavored to attach an 
amendment to it, asking the King to lay before Parliament all let- 
ters, orders and instructions, relating to American affairs, as well as 
all the late intelligence from the Colonies. This amendment Lord 
North opposed, on the ground that it placed Great. Britain in the 
position of making the first advances towards a reconciliation, which, 
on account of the many acts of disobedience and violations of law of 
which the Colonists were guilty, it was their duty first to do. A 
very warm debate ensued, and the recent acts, bearing heavily upon 
Massachusetts Bay, were severely censured as unnecessary and 
cruelly unjust ; and the Premier was sarcastically reminded of the 
beneficial and mighty effects he had predicted from those acts, which, 
according to his showing, were to " humble that whole continent in 
the dust, without any further trouble." But the general bitterness 
of feeling towards America was exhibited when the vote was taken. 

* Author of the " Wealth of Nations." 



140 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1774. 

Petitions and counter petitions from the Manufacturing Districts. 

The amendments were rejected ; and the resolution to adopt an 
address passed the House by a majority of two hundred and sixty- 
four against seventy-three. In the Lords, a similar address was 
moved, and similar amendments offered, which elicited a very hot 
debate ; and the final result was the same as in the lower House, — 
the amendments were rejected, and the address carried by a majority 
of sixty-three to thirteen. Nine Peers of the minority signed a 
strong protest, which concluded with the following sensible remarks ; 
" Whatever may be the mischievous designs, or the inconsiderate 
temerity, Avhich leads others to this desperate course, we wish to be 
known as persons who have ever disapproved of measures so per- 
nicious in their past effects and future tendencies ; and who are not in 
haste, without inquiry and information, to commit ourselves in decla- 
rations which may precipitate our country into all the calamities of a 
civil war." 

Franklin and his associates had caused strong but respectful pe- 
titions to be sent in from the dissenting manufacturers,* and Doctor 
Roebuck had also procured some ; not, however, without the em- 
ployment of a great deal of duplicity. The former were referred 
to an inactive committee, justly stigmatized by Burke a " committee 
of oblivion ;" whilst the counter petitions were all presented at once 
and acted upon. The vote in the Commons on the address and the 
amendment to it offered, and the unfair action in the matter of peti- 
tions, convinced the Americans that they had as little favor to hope 
for from the new Parliament, as they had received from the old. 
They had expected that the New Parliament, in a measure unpledged 
to ministers, would act with more justice and liberality towards 
them than the late one had done, and to their convocation and labors 
they looked with much anxiety ; for, coming fresh from the people, 
and presumed to utter the sentiments of their constituents, it was 
hoped that those sentiments were friendly and generous. But they 
were disappointed. The last faint hope of reconciliation faded 
away, and the . people of America began vigorous preparations for 

* Strong petitions were also sent in from London, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, 
Norwich, Birmingham, Glasgow, and other cities, in which they glowingly portrayed 
the great detriment accruing to their business from the state of American affairs, 
and implored Parliament to reestablish pacific relations with America. But the 
prayers of the merchants were as little heeded as those of the manufacturers, and 
the haughty contempt with which some of the petitions were rejected by the minis- 
terial party can only be accounted for by supposing that the loyal bearing of New 
York, one of the most prominent of the Colonies, gave them an encouraging hope 
that the other provinces were on the point of bowing submissively to the authority 
of the British crown. A petition in favor of the Americans from the Island of 
Jamaica was even rejected with disdain. 



CHAP. IV.] 



EVENTS OF 1774. 



141 



Position of the Colonies. 



open rebellion. They felt conscious of their purity of purpose, the 
correctness of their principles, and the unity of their hearts ; and, 
relying upon the assurance that " thrice armed is he who has his 
quarrel just," they felt competent to do battle, even with the armies 
and navies of haughty Britain. While they resolved to put forth in all 
its strength and majesty their whole manhood, they placed their firmest 
reliance upon that Providence which had thus far been a " cloud by 
day, and a pillar of fire by night " to them, leading them on from bless- 
ing to olessing, to a state of great prosperity, marred only by the iron 
heel of kingly oppression. Confident that it, like that of Achilles, 
would prove vulnerable, they boldly bent the bow. 




Carpenters' Hall — Philadelphia. 



EVENTS OF 1775, 




Richard Montgomery — Israel Putnam — James Warren. 



CHAPTER V. 

URTNG the recess of Parliament, which was 
prorogued early in December, far more alarming 
intelligence than had yet been received, reached 
ministers from America. Positive information 
concerning the proceedings of Congress, — the 
various able documents adopted by that body, 
and the decided voice of universal approval that 
was heard from every Colony, told ministers, in terms 
not to be mistaken, that America was fairly aroused, 
and resolved to contend, with unbroken front and un- 
daunted spirit, for every prerogative vouchsafed them by the British 
constitution. On the nineteenth of January, Parliament reassem- 
bled, and Lord North laid before both Houses a large mass of 

10 




144 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 

Earl of Chatham's proposition for an address to the King. 

documents received from the Colonial Governors, together with the 
proceedings of the American Congress in detail. 

On the twentieth, the Earl of Chatham (William Pitt) was in his 
place, quite contrary to the expectations of many, for a report had 
gone abroad that he had washed his hands of American affairs, and 
did not intend even to be in London at the opening of the session. But 
he was there, and opened the proceedings by proposing, " That an 
humble address be presented to his Majesty to desire and beseech 
that, in order to open the way towards a happy settlement of the 
dangerous troubles in America, by beginning to allay ferments and 
soften animosities there," and to prevent any fatal catastrophe at 
Boston, where the people were greatly irritated by the presence and 
insolence of the troops, " it might please his Majesty to immediately 
despatch orders to General Gage to remove the force from Boston as 
soon as the rigors of the season would permit." " I wish, my 
Lords," said he, " not to lose a day in this urgent, pressing crisis. 
An hour now lost may produce years of calamity. For my part, I 
will not desert for a single moment, the conduct of this weighty busi- 
ness ; unless nailed to my bed by extremity of sickness, I will give 
it my unremitted attention. I will knock at the door of this sleeping 
and confounded ministry, and will rouse them to a sense of their 
impending danger. When I state the importance of the Colonies to 
this country, and the magnitude of danger from the present plan of 
misadministration practised against them, I desire not to be under- 
stood to argue for a reciprocity of indulgence between England and 
America. I contend not for indulgence, but justice to America; and 
I shall ever contend, that the Americans owe obedience to us in a 
limited degree." After stating the points on which the supremacy 
of the mother country was justly predicated, the great orator con- 
tinued : " Resistance to your acts was necessary as it was just ; and 
your vain declarations of the omnipotence of Parliament, and your 
imperious doctrines of the necessity of submission, will be found 
equally competent to convince or to enslave your fellow-subjects in 
America, who feel that tyranny, whether ambitioned by an individual 
part of the Legislature or the bodies who compose it, is equally in- 
tolerable to British subjects." He then drew a picture of the condi- 
tion of the troops in Boston,* suffering from the inclemencies of 
winter, insulted by the inhabitants, wasting away with sickness and 

* In November of the preceding year, Viscount Barrington, the Secretary of 
War, advised Lord North to withdraw the troops from Boston, leaving only one regi- 
ment at Castle William. He gave it as his opinion that the naval force might be so 
employed as to reduce the Colonies to submission, without shedding a drop of 
blood 



chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 145 



Chatham's bill for reconciliation with the Colonies. 



pining for action ; and finally, after alluding to the wisdom of the late 
Congress and the approval of their acts by the people, he exclaimed, 
" I trust it is obvious to your lordships that all attempts to impose 
servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty 
continental nation, must be vain — must be fatal. We shall be forced 
ultimately to retract ; let us retract while we can, not when we must. 
.... To conclude, my Lords, if the ministers thus persevere in 
misadvising and misleading the King, I will not say that they can 
alienate the affections of his subjects from his crown ; but I will 
affirm, that they will make the crown not worth his wearing. I will 
not say that the King is betrayed, but I will pronounce that the 
kingdom is undone."* 

Chatham was supported by Sheiburne, Camden, Rockingham and 
Richmond. On the other hand, ministers contended that to recede 
now from their position, after having gone so far, and that too in the 
face of such bold resistance, would really amount to a complete sub- 
mission, abdication of government, and loss of all authority. They 
charged Chatham with the sin of sowing the seeds of division at 
home and abroad, and reproved him as an abettor of malcontents. 
When the vote was taken on his motion, it was negatived by sixty- 
eight to eighteen. 

Chatham was not discouraged, but immediately presented a bill 
containing a plant for the settlement of the transatlantic troubles. It 
proposed to renounce the power of taxation, but to call upon Con- 
gress to acknowledge the supreme legislative power of Great Britain, 
and invite them to make a free grant of certain annual revenue, to 
be employed in meeting the charge on the national debt. This 
being effected, it proposed an immediate repeal of all the obnoxious 
acts. Notwithstanding the exalted origin of this bill, and the great 
consideration due to the opinions of the framer of it, it was treated 
with a great deal of coldness, and hardly obtained a superficial ex- 
amination of its merits. The Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State 
for America, proposed that it should lie upon the table ; but this pro- 
position was condemned by other members, and after a warm 

* This speech, which was over an hour in length, was one of the best that ever 
fell from the lips of the great orator. Franklin, in a letter to Earl Stanhope, de- 
clared concerning it, that he had " seen in the course of his life, sometimes elo- 
quence without wisdom, and often wisdom without eloquence ; but in the present 
instance, he had seen both united, and both, as he thought, in the highest degree 
possible." 

f This plan was submitted by Chatham to Franklin, before it was offered in 
Parliament. He stated to Franklin, that, though he had considered the American 
business thoroughly, in all its parts, he was not so confident of his own judgment, 
but that he came to set it right by his, " as men set their watches by a regulator " 



146 



THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 



[1775. 



Petition of the American Agents. 



Lord North's coercive measures 



debate, during which the Earl of Sandwich, a violent partisan of the 
crown, moved the " rejection of the bill now and for ever," it was 
negatived by a vote of sixty-one against thirty-two. Such a hurried 
rejection of a plan so wise and conciliatory, subsequently drew forth 
the bitter reproaches of Lord Camden. " Obliterate," said he, " the 
transaction from your records ; let not posterity know it." Out of 
doors, Chatham was much applauded for his plan of pacification. 
The corporation of the city of London passed him a vote of thanks, 
and a similar compliment to those colleagues who supported him. 
Franklin sent forth an address to the people of England, and to his 
own countrymen, in which he portrayed the wickedness of rejecting 
this plan of reconciliation, the only one that had been offered for 
years. 

On the twenty-ninth of January, Franklin, Bollan and Lee, pre- 
sented a petition, praying to be examined at the bar, in support of the 
demands of the General Congress. Their prayer was denied, on 
the ground that such permission would look like sanctioning the acts 
of the Congress, which ministers averred had met in an irregular and 
illegal manner. 

On the second of February, Lord North proposed the first of a 
series of measures, designed to coerce the Colonies into passive 
obedience to the King and Parliament. He moved in the Commons, 
in Committee of the Whole, for an address to the King, thanking 
him for the presentation of the numerous American documents, 
affirming that the province of Massachusetts had been, and was, in 
a state of rebellion, that the House was resolved never to relinquish 
any part of the sovereign authority ; and professing their readiness 
to listen to petitions and redress grievances, when the subjects 
were brought before them in a dutiful and constitutional manner. 
They urged the King to take effectual measures for enforcing obe- 
dience to the laws ; and then followed the usual resolution to 
support him with their " lives and fortunes." 

When the minister introduced this motion, he intimated that a 
part of his plan consisted in considerably augmenting the military 
force in America, and in adopting measures for effectually restraining, 
in fact actually stopping, the commerce of New England with Great 
Britain, Ireland and the West Indies, and the fishing on the banks 
of Newfoundland, until the Colonists should return to their duty. 
Fox moved an amendment, censuring the ministry and praying for 
their removal. Dunning denied the existence of rebellion, and was 
replied to by the eminent Thurlow. The debate was a very stormy 
one, and Fox's amendment was negatived by a majority of three 
hundred and four against one hundred and five ; and on a second 



chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 147 

Speech of John Wilkes. Augmentation of the British Army in America. 

division, Lord North's motion for an address was carried by a ma- 
jority of two hundred and ninety-six to one hundred and six in the 
Commons ; and in the upper House, by eighty-seven to twenty- 
seven ; eighteen Peers protesting.* 

When the address was reported" by the committee appoint- 

i i ii • i • i « Feb - 6 - 

ed to prepare it, there was another warm debate, in which 

the celebrated John Wilkes took a conspicuous part against the 
ministers. He declared that a proper resistance to wrong was 
revolution, not rebellion ; and that if success crowned the efforts of the 
Americans, they might in after time celebrate the revolution of 1775 
as the English did that of 1688. " Who can tell," said he, " whether, 
in consequence of this very day's violent and mad address, the scab- 
bard may not be thrown away by them as well as by us !" Lord 
Cavendish moved to recommit the address for a modification of its 
harshness ; and other members of the opposition earnestly recom- 
mended mildness. But the address, as reported, was carried by a 
large majority ; nearly four to one. The King, in reply to the 
address, assured Parliament that he would take the most speedy and 
effectual means to secure obedience to the laws ; that he was 
ready to extend just and reasonable indulgence to any truly repent- 
ant Colony ; and concluded with an expressed wish, that the dispo- 
sition which he manifested, would have a good effect upon the 
temper and conduct of the Americans. He also sent a message to 
the Commons, informing them that it would be necessary to augment 
the naval and military forces in America, in order to enable them to 
act in accordance with the spirit of their address. On the reception 
of these documents, a violent debate arose ; and it was finally voted 
that two thousand additional seamen and fourteen hundred soldiers, 
should be sent to America. 

On the tenth of February, Lord North moved for leave to bring a 
bill into the House of Commons providing for the destruction of the 
entire trade of New England,! and their fisheries.^ In this proposed 
bill was a clause excepting in the general ban, those individuals who 

* Gibbon, the historian, who then had a seat in Parliament, wrote to his friend 
Sheffield, " We voted an address of lives and fortunes, declaring Massachusetts Bay 
in a state of rebellion ; more troops, but I fear not enough, go to America, to make 
an army of ten thousand men at Boston ; three generals, Howe, Burgoyne and Clin- 
ton ! In a few days we stop the ports of New England. I cannot write volumes, 
but I am more and more convinced that, with firmness, all may go well, yet I some- 
times doubt." 

t These severe restrictions were afterwards extended to all the other Colonies 
except New York and North Carolina. 

X About four hundred ships, two thousand fishing shallops, and twenty thousand 
men were, according to testimony presented to Parliament, then employed in the 
British Newfoundland fisheries. 



148 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 

Presentation of various Petitions. Lord North's " conciliatory " Scheme 

should produce a certificate from their respective Governors, certi- 
fying their general good conduct and loyalty, and who should ac- 
knowledge the supremacy of the British Parliament. Ministers 
represented this measure as a just and wise punishment of the 
Americans for their rebellious proceedings, and only a fair retaliation 
of a similar course which the Congress had adopted. This measure, 
like the others, awakened a stormy debate, and encountered violent 
opposition, being pronounced, even by lukewarm men, as cruel and 
unjust, tyrannical and unnecessary. The motion to bring in the 
bill was carried by the immense majority of two hundred and sixty - 
one against eighty-five. In the further progress of the bill, many 
petitions were presented against it. Among them was one from the 
merchants of London, representing the great loss they must sus- 
tain by thus impoverishing the Colonists ;* and another was from the 
Quakers, in behalf of their brethren of Nantucket, who by such an 
act, as their chief employment was fishing, would be reduced to a 
state of actual famine. This latter petition was treated with great 
respect, and elicited much commiseration. 
., L c On the third reading of the bill,* an amendatory clause 

a March 8. 9 . , . J 

was proposed, excepting articles of food which might be 
brought coastwise from any port of America. This clause was 
rejected, and the bill was carried by a majority of one hundred and 
eighty-eight to fifty-eight. In the House of Lords the amendment 
to include all the Colonies except New York and North Carolina, 

was offered. It was carried by a large majority, 4 and the 

b March 21. . .„ . . . . J . ° c i 

bill, as amended, wa3 adopted by a vote of seventy-three 
to twenty-one. t The amendment was subsequently withdrawn (a 
separate bill designed to have the same effect, being presented by 
Lord North), and on the thirtieth of March, the original bill received 
the royal signature. 

While this last bill was in transitu through the Houses, Lord 

North astonished all parties by a motion to introduce a bill ° 

intended to be conciliatory, and, as he thought, perfectly 

consistent with all previous declarations and acts of Parliament. \ 

* The people of New England were at that time indebted to the merchants of 
the city of London alone, nearly five millions of dollars. 

t Parliamentary Register (177.1), pp. 6-99. 

X The bill or resolution was as follows: — "When the Governor, Council and 
Assembly, or general court of his Majesty's provinces or Colonies, shall propose to 
make provision for contributing their proportion to the common defence, to be 
raised under the authorities of the general court or General Assembly, and disposa- 
ble by Parliament ; and shall engage to make provision also for the support of the 
civil government and administration of justice ; it will be proper, if such proposal 
shall be approved by hi- Majesty in Parliament, and for so long as such provision 



chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 149 

Dilemma of the Ministers. Burke's plan for Conciliation. 

It proposed that when the proper authorities in any Colony should 
offer, besides maintaining its own civil government, to raise a certain 
revenue, and make it disposable by Parliament, it would be proper 
to forbear imposing any tax, except for the regulation of commerce. 
At first, both parties were dissatisfied with the resolution — the court 
or tory party, because of its conciliating character ; and the republi- 
can, or whig party, because, after all, it would abate but the single 
grievance of taxation complained of, that it referred all to the future 
decision of Parliament, and upon no point was it specific. Lord 
North, much to his own astonishment, found himself midway be- 
tween contending fires, and in a very unpleasant dilemma. But his 
usual skill carried him safely through, not, however, without an 
avowal on his part that one of his chief objects was to divide the 
malcontents in the colonies ; a policv of very questionable honor- 
Colonel Bane, ever the staunch friend of the Americans, pronounced 
this motive low, shameful and abominable — an attempt to dissolve that 
generous union which made the Americans as one man in the de- 
fence of the rights of British subjects ; and denounced it as a scheme 
to cause the Colonists to reject the proffered conciliation, and thus 
draw down tenfold vengeance, having the appearance of justice, on 
their heads. After a very stormy debate, the friends of the minister 
saw that the resolution was not so objectionable after all, and united, 
to a great extent, in its support. The proposition was adopted by a 
vote of two hundred and seventy-four to eighty-eight. 

On the twenty-second of March, Burke, who had very eloquently 
opposed the proposition of Lord North, presented a series of resolu- 
tions, proposing a complete practical concession to the Americans, 
of all points in dispute, and thus to "restore" as he said, "the 
former unsuspecting confidence of the Colonies in the mother coun- 
try, and give permanent satisfaction" to the English people. A;. 
might have been expected, his plan was rejected by a large vole — two 
hundred and seventy to seventy-eight. Five days afterwards, Mr. 
Haiti v presented a conciliatory scheme, similar to the Earl of Chat- 
ham's. It was negatived without a division. Several petitions and 
memorials from the Colonies were offered in the upper House, but 
Were treated with disdain. The mercantile interest ot London. 
smarting severely under the non-intercourse acts, warmly espoused 
the cause of the Colonies. An address was presented to the King 
by the Lord Mayor, aldermen and livery oi London, in a April 10. 

shall be made accordingly, to forbear, in respect of such province or Colony, to 
lew any duty. tax. or assessment) except for the regulation ot commerce, the nett 
produce of which shall be carried to the account of such province, Colony, or plan- 
tation." 



150 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 

Procurement of Munitions of War by the people of Massachusetts. Effect of the King's Speech- 

which they condemned the late measures against the Ameri- 
cans, and pronounced their resistance justifiable. They received a 
stern rebuke in reply ; and his Majesty expressed astonishment that 
any subject should be capable of abetting and encouraging such 
rebellious courses. In truth, the King and the Legislature seemed 
madly bent on the execution of their plans to enslave the Americans ; 
and they shut their ears to the prayers of petitions, the respectful 
voice of remonstrance, and the warnings of sound reason. 

Whilst Parliament was thus engaged in angry debates upon vari- 
ous measures, nearly all of which were designed to coerce the Ame- 
ricans into submission, energetic and almost universal movements 
were making on this side of the Atlantic preparative to an appeal to 
arms, which was now considered inevitable. The provincial 
Congress of Massachusetts passed a resolution" for the 
purchase of all the munitions of war that could be found, requisite 
for an army of fifteen thousand men. As these articles could be 
chiefly found in Boston, it was necessary to employ strategy to pro- 
cure them, for a guard was constantly on duty upon the isthmus. 
Cannon balls and muskets were carried out of the city in carts appa- 
rently laden with manure ; and powder, concealed in the baskets or 
panniers of the market-women, and cartridges in candle-boxes, were 
carried through the English posts. At length General Gage, by his 
sleepless vigilance, discovered these movements, and learning that 
some brass cannon and field pieces were at Salem, he sent a detach- 
ment of troops thither from the Castle to seize them. 6 They 
landed at Marblehead, but the Americans, equally vigilant, 
removed their ordnance before the soldiers arrived, and they were 
obliged to return to the Castle without securing the objects of their 
expedition. In the meanwhile, intelligence of the King's speech at 
the opening of Parliament, of the resolutions adopted by that body, 
declaring the inhabitants of Massachusetts rebels, and the other acts 
of oppression already recorded, reached America, and the sentiment, 
" to arms ! to arms !" thrilled every heart. Concession was out of 
the question, and all awaited with an anxious impatience for the 
sound of the war signal. The inhabitants of Boston became greatly 
alarmed, and many left the city privately, being in daily dread of 
outrages, for it was evident that only a very small occurrence was 
necessary to produce a bloody strife between the mutually exaspe- 
rated people and soldiery. 

Subsequently General Gage received certain information that a 
considerable quantity of military stores were concealed at Concord, 
a town about eighteen miles distant from Boston. In the night be- 
tween the eighteenth and nineteenth of April, he detached some 



chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 151 

Attempt to seize the Ammunition and Stores. Battle of Lexington. 

grenadiers and light infantry of his army, under the command of 
.Lieutenant-Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn, with orders to proceed 
to Concord and destroy the depot. It is also averred that General 
Gage commissioned them to seize Samuel Adams and John Han- 
cock, two of the warmest patriots, and (to government) most obnox- 
ious men in the Colony. The Bostonians, learning the departure of 
the expedition, speedily sent a warning to Adams and Hancock to be 
on their guard. The Committee of Public Safety, of which Elbridge 
Gerry was chairman, gave orders to have the ammunition and stores 
distributed. Doctor Warren, one of the most active patriots in Bos- 
Ion, sent several messengers to arouse the country. Notwithstand- 
ing an order of General Gage, that no citizen should leave the town, 
these messengers succeeded in reaching Lexington, a town on the 
road to Concord, and divulged the intelligence. On the 

, „ « April. 

eighteenth," the people flocked together, the bells were rung, 
and cannons were fired to give the alarm to the adjacent country. 
The minute-men and other militia collected in considerable num- 
bers ; but, unable to ascertain the true direction of the march of the 
British soldiers, they dispersed at night. 

Colonel Smith, hearing the reports of the cannon, ordered six 
companies of light infantry to advance towards Lexington as fast as 
they could run, and secure the bridges. About five o'clock on the 
morning of the nineteenth, they reached Lexington. The people 
gave the alarm, and the provincial militia in the vicinity, to the num- 
ber of seventy, immediately assembled upon the green near the road. 
Major Pitcairn, who was at the head of the English troops, at once 
cried out, " Disperse, rebels ! lay down your arms and disperse ! " 
The provincials did not obey his imperious command, upon which 
he sprang from the ranks, discharged a pistol, and brandishing his 
sword, ordered his soldiers to fire. The soldiers, with loud huzzas, 
ran up, and some muskets were fired, followed by a general dis- 
charge, which killed and wounded quite a number. The infantry 
were soon reinforced by the grenadiers under Smith, and the whole 
detachment, driving the militia before them, pushed on to Concord, 
distant from Lexington about four miles. Their first act was to 
spike two cannons, and destroy their carriages, and a number of 
wheels prepared for the use of the artillery. They then threw into 
the river and wells about five hundred pounds of bullets, and wasted 
a quantity of flour and provisions. While these outrages were in 
progress, the provincials were gathering in large numbers from 
various quarters, and a detachment of the infantry that had been sent 
to scour the country in the neighborhood of Concord, were obliged 
to retreat to the main body. As they entered the town, a hot skir- 



152 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 


[1775. 


British Retreat to Boston. 


Dawn of the New Era. 



mish took place, and a considerable number were killed on both 
sides. Finding themselves in a perilous position, the English troops 
began a retrograde movement towards Lexington. The whole coun- 
try was aroused, and wherever the intelligence of the events of the 
morning were divulged, the people flew to arms. When the British 
arrived at Lexington, they were greatly exhausted, and must have 
been totally destroyed by the Americans, but for the timely aid 
afforded them by Governor Gage. Apprehensive of what actually 
happened, he despatched a reinforcement of sixteen companies, with 
some marines and two field pieces, under the command of Lord 
Percy,* who arrived at Lexington just as the English troops reached 
there, hotly pursued by the provincials. The fresh royal troops 
formed a square for the protection of their fatigued companions, 
wherein the exhausted soldiers laid down to rest. This accomplished, 
they all proceeded towards Boston, keeping the two field-pieces in 
the rear to protect them against the provincials, who increased in 
number every hour, and kept up an incessant fire, front and rear, 
from behind stone walls and hedges. At sunset, they reached 
Charlestown, and the next morning entered Boston. During the 
day the English had sixty-five killed, one hundred and eighty 'wound- 
ed, and twenty-seven missing. The Americans had fifty killed and 
thirty-eight wounded.f 

Such was the opening scene in the first act of the bloody drama 
of the American Revolution. The sword was drawn, the scabbard 
was indeed thrown away, as the patriot Wilkes had intimated it 
might be, and thenceforth reconciliation was indignantly repelled, 
and independence sighed for and demanded. The events of that day 
were fraught with the mightiest results. They were the first labor- 
pains that attended the birth of a nation, now still in its infancy, but 
powerful as a youthful Hercules. They formed the first irruption 
of the chrysalis of old political systems, whence speedily came forth 
a noble and novel creature, with eagle eye and expansive wings, 
destined to soar far above the creeping reptiles of monarchy and 
autocracy that brood amid the debris of old dynasties. They indeed 
formed the significant prelude to that full diapason whose thundering 
harmony, drawn forth by the magic touch of the Spirit of Freedom, 
filled the nations with wonder, and ushered in the New Era so long 
predicted, and so long hoped for. 

The affair at Lexington was highly mortifying to the pride of the 
British officers and soldiers, and greatly encouraging to the provincial 
troops and people. The former could hardly endure the thought of 

* Lord Percy was the eldest son of the Duke of Northumberland, 
t Marshall, vol. ii., pp. 257-60. 



chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 153 

Effect of the first Conflict. Enrolment and Organization of a Provincial Army. 

being defeated by a " flock of Yankees," as they contemptuously 
called the Americans ; whilst the latter plainly discovered that the 
famous English troops were not invincible.* From this moment, 
the English government was practically convicted of the falsity of 
their boast of American cowardice, and convinced that the strug- 
gle must be long and bloody — that rebels were easier crushed 
by the foot of haughty Peers upon the floor of Parliament, than by 
the rude heel of War upon their native soil. And the Americans 
also learned what valor, prompted by pure patriotism, might do ; and 
a confidence of success in the maintenance of their rights animated 
every heart. 

At the time of the battle of Lexington, the provincial Congress 
of Massachusetts was in session at Watertown, ten miles distant from 
Boston. When the news of that event reached them, they prepared 
an address to the English people, giving circumstantial details of the 
event, and entreating them to interfere and avert the calamities that 
threatened the Colonies. They also proceeded to the regular organ- 
ization of an army in the province. They fixed the pay of officers, 
and passed a resolution to raise, by levy, thirteen thousand six hun- 
dred men, and chose Colonel Artemas Ward for their general. They 
also invited the other New England Colonies to furnish each a pro- 
portionate quota, in order to make an aggregate of thirty thousand 
men, to be placed under the command of General Thomas, an officer 
of great experience. Connecticut immediately despatched a large 
corps, commanded by Colonel Putnam, an old and experienced 
officer, who had served in both of the last Colonial wars. The 
other Colonies were equally prompt, and within a few days after the 
affair at Lexington, the thirty thousand militia were enrolled. So 
great and universal was the ardor of the Americans, that the generals 
were obliged to send many thousand volunteers backio their homes. 
The provincial Congress issued a large sum in paper currency,' for 
the pay of the troops, for the redemption of which the faith of the 
province was pledged. 

* Strong efforts were made by each party to prove the other the aggressor at 
Lexington. The English assert that when the Americans were quietly ordered 
by Major Pitcairn to leave the green, they did disperse, but in so doing, fired 
several shots, wounding one of the men, and also Pitcairn's horse in several places. 
This provocation, English authors assert, caused the order of Pitcairn to fire On 
the other hand, it is clearly proven by numerous affidavits which were presented 
to Congress at its session in May following, that the attack was first made by 
Pitcairn, as we have stated. English authors assert, that cruelties, paralleled only 
by their savage neighbors, were perpetrated upon the prisoners in the hands of the 
provincials. But it is proven beyond cavil or doubt, that the Americans treated 
the prisoners with great humanity, and even sent word to General Gage that 
he was at liberty to send surgeons to attend the wounded in their hands. 



154 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 

Blockade of Boston. Universal Approval of the measure by the Colonies. 

Preparations were immediately made to blockade Boston, and 
twenty thousand men put themselves in cantonments and formed a 
line nearly twenty miles in extent, with, the left leaning on the river 
Mystic, and the right on the town of Roxbury, thus enclosing Bos- 
ton. Generals Ward, Preble,* Heath, Prescott, Putnam and Tho- 
mas, were the officers put in command of the blockading army. 
Their head-quarters was at Cambridge ; and Putnam and Thomas, 
the former at Cambridge, and the latter at Roxbury, took their sta- 
tions so on the right wing of the army, that they effectually cut off 
the British garrison from all communication with the adjacent coun- 
try, by the isthmus. 

On the fifth of May, the provincial Congress formally declared 
General Gage, by the late transactions, utterly disqualified from 
acting as Governor, or in any other official capacity, and that no 
obedience was due to him ; but, on the contrary, he was to be con- 
sidered an " inveterate enemy." The blockading force was continu- 
ally augmenting, and ammunition and artillery were daily added to 
their supplies. Within a few days after the formation of their 
extended line, they were strengthened by sixteen field-pieces, four 
brass guns of a small size, a few large iron cannon taken out of 
merchant vessels, and two or three mortars and howitzers. 

Such was the state of affairs in the Colonies, when Lord North's 
" conciliatory propositions," so called, arrived — propositions which 
received, as they deserved, the scorn and contempt of the Americans. 
The gossamer web was too thin to cover even the minutest ill mo- 
tive ; and instead of soothing, it exasperated the feelings of the 
Americans. Nothing short of absolute and unconditional concession 
to their righteous demands would now satisfy them, for they had 
learned, by sad experience, to view the British ministry as a willing 
instrument of eppression. 

The bloodshed at Lexington filled the Colonies with horror and 
indignation : and the vigorous measures of New England, in besieg- 
ing the British troops in Boston, were universally commended. New 
York, which had hitherto been more loyal than any other province, 
now resolved to make common cause with the other Colonies, and at 
a meeting of the inhabitants of the city, they adopted the resolutions 
of the general Congress of the preceding year. They also seized 
the military stores, and many of the women and children were 
removed out of the way of danger, as vigorous preparations for war 
were made. 



* Preble, according to Gordon, was unable to attend on account of ill health, and 
Ward and Putnam were the real acting officers. 



chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 155 

General Revolutionary Movements in all the Colonies. 

In New Jersey, when the news of the affair at Lexington reached 
them, the people took possession of the provincial treasure, out of 
which to pay the troops that were immediately levied. In Mary- 
land, the people seized all the ammunition and military stores, among 
which were fifteen hundred muskets. They also issued an interdict 
against all commerce with the British army and fleet at Boston, 
determined to withhold all supply of food.* 

In South Carolina, the rigorous acts of Parliament were received 
upon the same day that the battle of Lexington occurred, which 
called forth strong measures, and prepared their minds to engage 
eagerly in the general coalition which succeeded that event. When 
the news of the battle arrived, the inhabitants rushed to the arsenal, 
seized all the arms, and placed them in the hands of the soldiers in 
the pay of the province. A provincial Congress was convoked, and 
the delegates entered into a solemn league for the defence of the 
country. They also (as well as Massachusetts) emitted bills of 
credit, which the people received with alacrity. 

In North Carolina, Governor Martin had, in April, endeavored to 
prevent the assembling of a provincial Congress at Newbern ; but it 
did assemble, approved of the measures of the late General Congress, 
and passed strong resolutions of disapprobation of the conduct 
of the Governor. Committees of Safety were appointed, and these 
were called to assemble on the nineteenth of May at Charlotte court- 
house, in Mecklenburg county. Between twenty and thirty of these 
representatives of the people met on the appointed day,t and after 
the business of the convention was arranged it was resolved to read 
the proceedings at the court-house door, in the presence of the mul- 
titude. Proclamation was made, and Colonel Thomas Polk read 
a series of resolutions, in which the people of Mecklenburg declared 
a dissolution of the bonds that united them to Great Britain ; pro- 
claimed themselves free and independent, and took measures to 
organize a sort of temporary provincial government.^ The resolu- 

* The scarcity in Boston became extreme. The garrison, as well as the inhabit- 
ants, were reduced to salt provisions. Many who were accustomed to live m 
elegant style found themselves deprived of even the necessaries of life. The 
Governor, apprehensive of famine, began to issue passports, particularly to women, 
and those whose presence was a burden rather than an aid. 

t While the Convention was in session the news of the battle of Lexington 
arrived. 

X These resolutions, embodying a Declaration of Independence, and the first 
adopted by any assemblage of people in America, are too important, considered in 
their ultimate effect, to be passed by, by giving merely the substance. Doubtless 
other spontaneous movements of the people at that dark and trying hour, having 
equally important bearings upon passing events were made, but like this, they were 
entirely eclipsed by the general blaze of glory that haloes the Declaration of Inde- 



156 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 



The Mecklenbnrg Declaration of Independence. 



tions were heartily approved of, and at the call of the people, they 
were read again and again, during the day. Copies of them were 
immediately forwarded to the Continental Congress then in session 
at Philadelphia, and also to the Provincial Congress convened in 
Hillsborough on the twentieth of August, but these respective bodies 
took no present action in the premises, deeming the declaration pre- 
mature, as every hope of reconciliation with the mother country had 
not yet departed.* 

pendence made by the Continental Congress of 1776. Subjoined are the declaratory 
resolutions entire. The resolutions were drawn up by Dr. Ephraim Brevard, chair- 
man of a committee appointed for the purpose. They are copied from Foote's 
Sketches of North Carolina : — 

" THE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION. 

" ' Resolved, 1st. That whosoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any way, 
form, or manner, countenanced the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our 
rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this country, to America, and to 
the inherent and unalienable rights of man. 

" ' Resolved, 2d. That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, do hereby 
dissolve the political bonds which have connected us with the mother country, and 
hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British Crown, and abjure all 
political connexion, contract, or association with that nation, who have wantonly 
trampled on our rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed the blood of American 
Patriots at Lexington. 

" ' Resolved, 3d. That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent 
people; are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing association, 
under the control of no power, other than that of our God, and the General Govern- 
ment of the Congress; — to the maintenance of which independence, we solemnly 
pledge to each other, our mutual cooperation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most 
sacred honor. 

" ' Resolved, 4th. That as we acknowledge the existence and control of no law, 
nor legal office, civil or military, within this county, we do hereby ordain and adopt, 
as a rule of life, all, each, and every of our former laws ; wherein, nevertheless, 
the crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, 
immunities, or authority therein. • 

" ' Resolved, 5th. That it is further decreed, that all, each, and every military 
officer in this county is hereby retained in his former command and authority, he 
acting conformably to these regulations. And that every member present of this 
delegation shall henceforth be a civil officer, viz. : a Justice of the Peace, in the 
character of a committee man, to issue process, hear and determine all matters of 
controversy, according to said adopted laws ; and to preserve peace, union, and 
harmony in said county ; and to use every exertion to spread the love of country 
and fire of freedom throughout America, until a general organized government be 
established in this province.' " 

* The papers of the Convention were preserved by the Secretary, John McKnitt 
Alexander, till the year 1S00, when they were destroyed, with his dwelling, by fire. 
He had previously given copies to different individuals, among them General Davie, 
of North Carolina, which copy is now (1847) in the hands of Governor Graham, 
the present chief magistrate of that State. Doubts having been expressed concern- 
ing the truth of the alleged Mecklenburg Convention and its proceedings, the 
author of this work wrote to Gov. Graham, making inquiry touching his possession, 
and the authenticity of, the copy of those proceedings, alleged to be in his custody. 



chap, iv.] EVENTS OF 1775. 157 

Proceedings of the Virginia Congress. Speech of Patrick Henry 

On the thirtieth of May, at a meeting at the same place, a second 
Declaration of Independence was made, and articles for the preser- 
vation of the peace were adopted, and from that time forth, the peo- 
ple of that province were, de facto, free and independent. 

The Provincial Congress of Virginia convened in March, and, by 
a series of resolutions, recommended a levy of volunteer troops in 
each county, for the better defence of the country. This bold mea- 
sure was the proposition of Patrick Henry. He had long witnessed 
with impatience the temporizing spirit of too many of the delegates, 
and, as he clearly saw that a crisis had arrived, he determined to 
urge energetic measures. On the introduction of his resolutions, 
the House was filled with consternation, and like his Stamp Act 
resolutions ten years before, they were opposed as rash and prema- 
ture, by some of the best patriots. But Henry met all their objec- 
tions with so much ability, that the resolutions were adopted by a 
large majority. Referring to the gracious manner with which the 
King had received their petition, he exclaimed : — " Suffer not your- 
selves to be betrayed by a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious 
reception comports with those warlike preparations which cover our 
waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a 
work of love and reconciliation ? Have we shown ourselves so 
unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win us 
back to our love ? Let us not deceive ourselves, Sir ! These are 
the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which 
Kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, what means this martial array, if 
its purpose be not to force us to submission ? Has Great Britain 
any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumula- 
tion of armies and navies ? No, Sir, she has none. They are 
meant for us ; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over 
to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry 
have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose them ? 
Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying argument for the 

last ten years We have petitioned ; we have supplicated : 

we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored 
its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and 
Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted ; our remonstrances 
have produced additional violence and insult ; our supplications have 
been disregarded ; and we have been spurned with contempt from 
the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge 
the fond hope of reconciliation. There is no longer any room for 
hope. If we wish to be free ; if we wish to preserve inviolate those 

He politely answered in the affirmative ; and they will appear among the Stute 
papers which the Legislature of that State has authorized him to collect. 



158 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 



Speech of Patrick Henry. 



inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending ; 
if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we 
have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves 
never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be 
obtained, we must fight ! I repeat it, Sir, we must fight ! An ap- 
peal to arms and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us. 

" They tell us, Sir, that we are weak — unable to cope with so for- 
midable an enemy. But when shall we be stronger ? Will it be 
next week, or next year ? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, 
and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house ? Shall 
we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire 
the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, 
and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, nntil our enemies shall 
have bound us hand and foot ? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a 
proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in 
our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of 
Liberty and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible 
by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, Sir, 
we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who pre- 
sides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to 
fight our battles for us. The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone ; 
it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. And again, we have no 
election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now. too late to 
retire from the contest.* There is no retreat but in submission and 
slavery ! Our chains are forged ! Their clanking may be heard 
on the plains of Boston ! The war is inevitable ! and let it come ! ! 
I repeat it, Sir, let it come ! ! ! It is vain, Sir, to extenuate the mat- 
ter. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace — but there is no peace ! 
The war is actually begun ! The next gale that sweeps from the 
north will bring; to our ears the clash of resounding arms ! f Our 
brethren are already in the field ! What is it that gentlemen wish? 
What would they have ? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be 
purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty 
God ! I know not what course others may take, but as for me," he 
cried, with both arms extended aloft ; his brow knit ; every feature 
marked with the resolute purpose of his soul ; and with his voice 
swelled to its loudest note, " Give me Libety or give me Death ! ! !" 

* The boldness of Mr. Henry, and the great influence which he exerted, caused 
him to be presented to the British government in a bill of attainder. His name, 
with that of Thomas Jefferson, Peyton Randolph, John Adams, Samuel Adams, 
John Hancock, and several others, were on that black list. 

t This prediction was speedily fulfilled ; for almost " the next gale from the 
north" conveyed the boom of the signal-gun of Freedom at Lexington 



CHAr. v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 159 

Effect of Henry's Speech. Expedition against Ticonderoga. 

He took his seat. No murmur of applause was heard. The 
effect was too deep. After the trance of a moment, several mem- 
bers started from their seats. The cry to arms seemed to quiver on 
every lip and gleam from every eye. Richard Henry Lee arose and 
supported Mr. Henry with his usual spirit and elegance, but his 
melody was lost amid the agitations of that ocean which the master- 
spirit of the storm had lifted on high. That supernatural voice still 
sounded in their ears, and shivered along their arteries. They heard 
in every pause the cry of Liberty or Death. They became impatient 
of speech — their souls were on fire for action.* 

Thus it will" be perceived that the people in all parts of the Colo- 
nies were impressed with the idea of the inevitable occurrence of 
War ; and various expeditions were planned. Among these was 
one for seizing the important fortress of Ticonderoga, on Lake 
Champlain, the key to the northern entrance into Canada. Colonel 
Ethan Allen was the chief projector of this expedition, and, early in 
May, accompanied by Colonels Easton, Browne and Warner, and 
Capl. Dickenson, with a number of volunteers from Connecticut and 
Vermont,f they proceeded towards Castleton. About the same time 
Benedict Arnold, a native of Norwich, Connecticut, and Captain in the 
provincial army, also conceived the plan of seizing Ticonderoga, and 
such confidence had the Massachusetts Committee of Safety in his 
bravery and judgment, that they gave him the rank of Colonel, with 
authority to levy troops for the expedition. Having collected a suffi 
cient number, he proceeded, and at Castleton he overtook Allen, who, 
much to his surprise, had anticipated him. He immediately put 
himself under Allen's command, and they proceeded on their march. 

The officer in command at Ticonderoga, was Captain La Place, 
an old friend of Allen. Precautions were taken to prevent their 
approach being known. They arrived at night on the banks of the 
lake opposite Ticonderoga, and there Allen found a boy who volun- 
teered to be their guide across the lake and to the fort 4 With only 
eighty-three men, they approached the fortress in the grey of the 
early morning, entered by the covered way, and having reached the 
esplanade, raised a tremendous shout, which aroused the sleeping 
garrison. Supposing the number of invaders to be far greater than 
it actually was, the soldiers were paralysed, and offered but a feeble 
resistance. The boy conducted Allen to the door of La Place's 
bed-chamber, who at that moment appeared, half dressed, and de- 

Wirt. f These styled themselves " Green Mountain Boys." 

% His name was Nathan Beman. He died in December, 1S4G, in Franklin county, 
New York, at the age of ninety years. He lived to see the Union increase from 
thirteen to thirty States! and from three millions of people to twenty millions. 

11 



160 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 

Capture of Ticonderoga. Meeting of the second Continental Congress. 

manded the cause of the tumult. The rough and well-known voice 
of Allen bade him surrender the fort. " By what authority do you 
make the demand ?" asked La Place. " By the Great Jehovah and 
the Continental Congress !" thundered Allen. The commander 
found it was useless to parley, and at once surrendered.* 

They secured one hundred and twenty pieces of twenty-four pound 
brass cannon, several howitzers, balls, bombs, and ammunition. A 
party was immediately sent to seize the fort at Crown Point, which 
was easily effected, and more than a hundred pieces of artillery were 
secured there. 

They next armed a schooner, which, under the command of Colo- 
nel Arnold, captured a corvette of war, which the English kept 
anchored at St. John's, at the head of the lake. They then proceed- 
ed to Skeensborough (now Whitehall), and successfully stormed and 
captured the fort, by which they came in possession of a large quan- 
tity of light artillery. This series of brilliant exploits put the 
Americans in complete possession of the lake and the chief route to 
Canada ; and inspired the Colonists with the greatest joy and hope 
for the future. The different fortresses were garrisoned ; and leav- 
ing the whole under the command of Arnold, Allen returned to Con- 
necticut. 

Whilst these exciting events were in progress at the north and 
east, the Second Continental Congress met at Philadel- 
phia," on the opening of which, delegates from twelve Colo- 
nies took their seats. t Peyton Randolph was, for the second time, 
unanimously chosen President,! and Charles Thomson, Secretary. 
The first subject that engaged their attention, was the reports of the 
transactions in the various Colonies, having a tendency to open hos- 
tility. When they received intelligence of the operations on Lake 
Champlain, they were quite unprepared for such serious measures; but 
believing their cause a just one, and encouraged by such a success- 
ful commencement, they at once resolved to put all the Colonies in a 
state of military defence. But before adopting any measures of this 
kind, they determined to make fresh appeals to the King and people 

* This enterprise was facilitated by Noah Phelps, a captain of Connecticut 
volunteers. The day before Allen's arrival, Captain Phelps disguised himself and 
entered the fort at Ticonderoga, in the character of a countryman wanting to be 
shaved. In his pretended search for the garrison barber, he observed everything 
critically ; discovered that the walls in part, were in a ruinous state, and that 
guard was kept very negligently. 

f On the twentieth of July, the day appointed by Congress as a fast day, that 
body received despatches from Georgia, announcing that that province had joined 
the confederation, and appointed Delegates. 

X On the nineteenth of May, Mr. Randolph being obliged to return home, John 
Hancock was unanimously chosen President, to fill his place. 




Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga P. 160 



chap. v.J EVENTS OF 1775. 163 

Preliminary Proceeding of Congress. Appointment of a Commander-in-Chief. 

of Great Britain.* They expressed to the King their continued 
devotion to his person and government, and their deep regret that 
circumstances had in any degree weakened their attachment to the 
Crown. To the people they strenuously denied the charge of aiming 
at independence, or of having, either directly or by implication, made 
overtures to any foreign government. They truly represented that 
their acts had been wholly defensive, and that in consequence of the 
rejection of their petitions by ministers, and wanton acts of oppres- 
sion by Parliament, all they had done was justifiable. " While we 
revere," said they, " the memory of our gallant and virtuous ances- 
tors, we never can surrender these glorious privileges for which they 
fought, bled, and conquered ; — your fleets and armies can destroy 
our towns, and ravage our coasts ; these are inconsiderable objects, 
— things of no moment to men whose bosoms glow with the ardor 
of Liberty. We can retire beyond the reach of your navy, and, 
without any sensible diminution of the necessaries of life, enjoy a 
luxury, which from that period you will want, — the luxury of being 
free." Having adopted these declarations, the Congress proceeded 
to make extensive military arrangements, by mustering into service, 
under the title of the Continental Army, the militia of the various 
Colonies, and such volunteers as might be obtained. They voted 
to issue paper money to the amount of three millions of dollars for 
the pay of the army, and took measures for the establishment of pro- 
visional assemblies in the several Colonies. 

On the fifteenth of June they adopted a resolution, " That a gene- 
ral be appointed to command all the Continental forces raised for 
the defence of American Liberty." Also, " That five hundred dol- 
lars per month be allowed for the pay and expenses of the general." 
This was an exceedingly delicate matter, for several military men of 
much experience were already in the army then investing Boston, 
and General Ward was in command of all the forces of the east. 
The great judgment and thorough knowledge of military affairs 
which George Washington, of Virginia, had exhibited on many 
occasions ; and his commanding talents, as displayed in the Congress 
of 17M, had made a deep impression upon the minds of the dele- 
gates, most of whom were now present, and their thoughts turned 
upon him to receive the high trust. It was questionable, however, 
in what light an attempt to supersede General Ward would be 
viewed. This difficulty, however, was overcome by the magnani- 
mity of the New England delegation. John Adams proposed the 
adoption of the provincial troops at Boston, as a " Continental Army," 

* See Appendix, Note VI. 



164 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 

Washington appointed Commander-in-Chief. His Commission. 

and at the conclusion of his remarks, he expressed his intention to 
propose a Member of Congress from Virginia, for the office of 
Commander-in-chief. All present understood it to be Washington, 
and when the day arrived for the appointment," he was no- 
minated by Thomas Johnson, of Maryland, and was unani- 
mously elected. On the convening of Congress the next morning, 
the President communicated to him officially the notice of his 
appointment, and he rose in his place and signified his acceptance in 
a brief and appropriate reply.* Four days afterwards,* he 
received his commission from the President of Congress,! 
and the members pledged themselves by a unanimous resolve, to 
maintain, assist and adhere to him with their lives and fortunes in the 
same cause. J Four Major-Generals and eight Brigadier-Generals 
were likewise appointed for the Continental army.§ 

* Washington, standing in his place, said : — " Mr. President, — Though I am truly 
sensible of the high honor done me, in this appointment, yet I feel great distress, 
from a consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not be equal to 
the extensive and important trust. However, as the Congress desire it, I will 
enter upon the momentous duty, and exert every power I possess in their service, 
and for the support of the glorious cause. I beg they will accept my most cordial 
thanks for this distinguished testimony of their approbation. But lest some 
unlucky event should happen, unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remem- 
bered, by every gentleman in this room, that I, this day, declare with the utmost 
sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with. As to 
pay, Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that, as no pecuniary consideration 
could have tempted me to accept the arduous employment, at the expense of my 
domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep 
an exact account of my expenses. Those, I doubt not, they will discharge, and that 
is all I desire." 

f It was in the following words : " To George Washington, Esq. : — We, reposing 
special trust and confidence in your patriotism, valor, conduct, and fidelity, do, by 
these presents, constitute and appoint you to be general and commander-in-chief 
of the army of the United Colonies, and of all the forces now raised, or to be raised 
by them, and of all others who shall voluntarily offer their services, and join the 
sitid army for the defence of American Liberty, and for repelling every hostile inva- 
sion thereof; and you are hereby vested with full power and authority to act as you 
shall think for the good and welfare of the service. And we do hereby strictly 
charge and require all officers and soldiers under your command, to be obedient to 
your orders, and diligent in the exercise of their several duties. And we do also 
enjoin and require you, to be careful in executing the great trust reposed in you, 
by causing strict discipline and order to be observed in the army, and that the 
soldiers be duly exercised, and provided with all convenient necessaries. And you 
are to regulate your conduct in every respect, by the rules and discipline of war (as 
here given you), and punctually to observe and follow such orders and directions, 
from time to time, as you shall receive from this, or a future Congress of these United 
Colonies, or committee of Congress. This commission is to continue in force, until 
revoked by this, or a future Congress. Signed, John Hancock, President." 

J Sparks's Life of Washington (] vol.), p. 131. 

§ To the former rank were chosen Artemas Ward, Charles Lee, Philip Schuyler, 
end Israel Putnam : to the latter, Seth Pomerov, Richard Montgomery, David 



W--^:' ; 




chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 167 

Arrival of reinforcements from England. Occupation of Breed's HIM by the Americans. 

In the meantime, war had actually commenced in New England. 
Towards the close of May, Generals 1 Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton, 
arrived at Boston, from England, with a considerable number of 
marines and drafts from other regiments. Several regiments from 
Ireland speedily followed, raising the effective force of the oMay2 5. 
British army to upwards of ten thousand men. General 
Gage issued a proclamation^ calling upon the people to lay 
down their arms, and offering a free pardon to all, except John Han- 
cock and Samuel Adams, whose political crimes were considered too 
flagitious to admit of forgiveness. 

It was evident that preparations to march the army into the coun- 
try were in progress by the British generals, to prevent which, the 
Americans strengthened their entrenchments across Boston Neck , 
but learning that the former had changed their plan, and were direct- 
ing their attention to the peninsula at Charlestown, the latter made 
instant provision for defeating this design. On the evening of the 
J. sixteenth of June, Colonel Prescott was ordered to take a detachment 
of one thousand men and form an entrenchment upon Bunker Hill, 
a lofty eminence which commanded the neck of the peninsula of 
Charlestown. Between nine and ten o'clock this force moved 
silently from Cambridge, passed unobserved by the British over 
Charlestown Neck, and by some mistake, repaired to the summit 
of Breed's Hill, another eminence upon that peninsula, and within 
cannon-shot of Boston. They immediately set to work to throw up 
a redoubt and entrenchments, and to place their guns in battery. 
They labored with so much ardor, that by daylight the fol- 
lowing morning the whole was sufficiently completed to 
afford them some shelter from the enemy's fire. So silently was 
all this labor performed, that neither the English troops nor the peo- 
ple of Boston had any intimation of it, until the fortifications were 
discovered, about four o'clock in the morning, by the captain of one 
of the ships of war in Boston harbor. He immediately began to 
play upon the Americans with his cannon, the report of which 
aroused the army and the people, who could scarcely believe the 
testimony of their eyes when they beheld the seeming work of 
magic. 

General Gage saw at once, that if the Americans should succeed 
in finishing a strong fortification there, overlooking, as the eminence 
did, the whole city, they would speedily dislodge him from the 

Wooster, William Heath, Joseph Spencer, John Thomas, John Sullivan, and Natha- 
niel Green. To them was added Horatio Gates, as Adjutant-general, with the rank 
of Brigadier. Washington appointed Thomas Mifflin, of Philadelphia, his aide-de- 
camp. 



168 


THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 


[1775. 


Preparations for Battle. 




Burning of Charlestown. 



town ; and he arranged a battery of six heavy guns upon Copp's 
Hill, a commanding eminence in Boston, and opened a general fire 
of artillery upon them, accompanied by bombs, but without much 
effect. Some of the guns of the fleet also opened upon them, but 
the Americans persevered in the completion of their redoubt. 

About noon a strong detachment from the English, three thousand 
in number, under the command of General Howe, was carried across 
the river in boats to Charlestown, with the design of storming the 
works. They found the fortifications so much stronger than they 
anticipated, that General Howe thought it prudent to wait for 
reinforcements. The right wing of the Americans rested upon the 
houses of Charlestown, and the part which connected with the main 
body was defended by the redoubt upon Breed's Hill. The centre 
and left wings formed themselves behind the trench which, following 
the declivity, descended towards Mystic River. From the extremity 
of the left wing to the river, they erected parallel palisades for pro- 
tection. The Massachusetts troops occupied Charlestown, the re- 
doubt and part of the trench ; those of Connecticut, under Captain 
Nolten, and of New Hampshire, under Colonel Starke, the rest of 
the trench. While the English were waiting for a reinforcement, 
the Americans received one under Doctor Joseph Warren, who 
was an active and popular patriot, and had received the appointment 
of Major General. General Pomeroy made his appearance at the 
same time, and took command of the Connecticut troops. General 
Putnam was the chief director of the movements, and was continually 
seen passing along the lines, giving orders and affording encourage- 
ment. 

While these awful preparations for combat were in progress, every 
hill-top, church-spire and roof, in Boston, was crowded with people, 
waiting with dreadful anxiety to see the battle begin. About one 
o'clock, the heat of the day intense, the English forces, divided into 
two columns, moved towards the Americans. It was arranged that 
the left wing under General Pigot should attack the Americans in 
Charlestown ; the centre should attack the redoubt ; and the right 
wing, consisting of light infantry, should force a passage through 
the palisades near the Mystic, and thus assail the Americans in flank 
and rear. The Americans who were stationed in Charlestown, 
fearing the assailants might separate them from the main body upon 
the hill, retreated ; and immediately an order from General Gage was 
put into execution — Charlestown was set on fire ! The buildings 
being of wood, the conflagration spread rapidly, and soon the whole 
village was in ashes. By this atrocious act, two thousand people 



chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 169 



Battle of Bunker Hill. 



were deprived of their habitations, and a great amount of property 
was destroyed. 

What a scene was now presented to view ! Upon a small emi- 
nence, defended by a feeble fortification erected in a day, stood a 
few brave men, marshalled from the furrows and workshops, and 
undisciplined in the art of war, bidding defiance to thousands of the 
choice troops of the most powerful nation upon the earth, which were 
commanded by experienced generals, and aided by a fleet of armed 
vessels, all ready at a signal, to scatter their iron hail and destructive 
bombs, along the patriot line. At their feet, a large town was in 
flames, while within sight, thousands of men, women and children, 
the loved ones of their homes, warm friends and dependent families, 
were rushing, pale with anxiety and alarm, to witness the dreadful 
conflict. Silently and slowly the British troops advanced, while not a 
gun was fired by the Americans until the enemy were within about 
ten rods of the redoubt. Then they poured upon them such a 
shower of bullets, that their ranks were soon thinned and broken, 
and in great confusion they retreated to the landing place. The 
ground was literally covered with the slain, and it was with the 
greatest difficulty that the British officers rallied their troops for a 
second attack. 

Finally they succeeded, and with unbroken column marched slowly 
.ip the hill. Again the Americans reserved their fire until the enemy 
approached very near, when they overwhelmed them a second time 
with a deluge of balls. The English again fled in great confusion to 
the shore, and for some time General Howe remained alone upon 
the field, every officer having fled or been killed. 

General Clinton, who, from Copp's Hill, had been watching these 
movements, seeing the destruction of Howe's troops, immediately 
sped to their succor. With a number of resolute officers, he crossed 
Charles River, rallied the troops, and a third time they ascended the 
hill, to make a general charge upon the Americans with fixed bayo- 
nets. In such an attack, the English had great advantage, for the 
Americans, though plentifully supplied with muskets, had few bayo- 
nets ; and after the second attack, their ammunition was nearly 
exhausted. All chance for a reinforcement, or a supply of ammuni- 
tion, was cut off by the complete sweep of the isthmus which the 
armed vessels had. 

The left wing and centre of the British army attacked the redoubt, 
while the light infantry made a violent attack upon the palisades. 
The assault at all points was furious, and the resistance obstinate. 
When their ammunition entirely failed, the Americans defended 
themselves valiantly with the butt-ends of their muskets ; but , seeing 



170 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 

Retreat of the Americans and Death of General Warren. Arrival of Washington at Cambridge. 

the redoubt, and a part of the trench in possession of the enemy, they 
at once commenced a retreat across Charlestown Neck, where they 
were enfiladed by the guns of the " Glasgow," an English sloop-of- 
war, and one or two gun boats or floating batteries. But they re- 
treated with a comparatively small loss, and entrenched themselves 
upon Prospect Hill, about two miles northwest from Breed's Hill, 
still maintaining the command of the entrance to Boston. 

Jt was during this retreat that the brave General Warren was 
killed. Finding the troops under his command hotly pursued by the 
enemy, he stood alone before the ranks, endeavoring to rally and 
encourage them by his own example. At that moment an English 
officer who knew him, borrowed a musket from one of his soldiers, 
and shot him dead.* In this battle, according to the official accounts, 
the Americans had one hundred and forty-five slain, and three hun- 
dred and four wounded : the English had two hundred and twenty- 
six killed, and eight hundred and twenty-eight wounded. t Among 
the British officers of distinction who were killed on the ground, 
were Lieutenant-Colonel Abercrombie, Major Pitcairn (the com- 
mander at Lexington), and Major Williams. Major Spendlove was 
mortally wounded, and died a few days after. 

In the beginning of July, Washington took his leave of Congress, 
and started for Cambridge. He arrived there on the twelfth, and 
found the blockading army considerably disheartened in consequence 
of the defeat at Bunker Hill, and their general discipline was very 
defective. They had been gathered suddenly from various points, 
and there being no positive authoritative head, insubordination to 
strict discipline was common. They had but little ammunition, and 
most of their guns were without bayonets. His first care was to 
properly organize and officer the army, and get a supply of ammuni- 
tion and stores. He soon succeeded in forming an excellent staff 
of brave officers, and in the establishment of a code of disciplinary 
laws, to which the soldiers in general paid ready obedience. 

On reconnoitring, Washington discovered that the main body of 
the British army, under General Howe, were strongly entrenching 
themselves upon Bunker Hill. Three floating batteries were placed 
in Mystic River ; a twenty gun ship in Charles River ; a strong bat- 
tery was erected on Copp's Hill in Boston, and very strong entrench- 

* The death of General Warren was greatly lamented by the Americans. He 
was a physician, and much beloved both in his profession and private life. He 
hail received the commission of Major-General just three days before the battle, and 
was only thirty-five years of age. He rushed into this battle as a mere volunteer. 
He was killed almost instantly, by a ball in the head, on or near the spot where now 
stands Bunker Hill Monument. — Goodrich. 

\ Marshall, vol. ii., pp. 288-04. 



chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 1 73 

Or^nnizntion of the Continental Army. Expedition to Canada. 

merits were in progress upon Boston Neck. In view of these active 
operations, he clearly saw how dangerous it would be to follow the 
advice of some members of the Congress, to attack the British 
troops at once. Instead of that, he began strengthening his own 
line ; and contracting it, he kept the centre at Cambridge, under his 
own immediate command, placed the right wing at Roxbury, under 
General Ward, and the left near the Mystic, under General Lee. 
The British were thus completely blockaded by land, and were 
obliged to receive all their supplies by ships from distant ports, as 
the Americans would not furnish them with food of any kind. Still 
they remained strangely inactive, and the summer and autumn passed 
away without any collision between the two armies, thus giving 
Washington ample time to organize his forces and prepare for the 
Spring campaign, if circumstances should demand one. General 
Gage was recalled, and the chief command devolved upon 

/->< i tt a October. 

General Howe. 

The capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, unlocked the door 
of entrance into Canada, and an expedition for revolutionizing that 
whole province was early concerted. For this purpose a body of 
about three thousand troops from New York and New England, 
were placed under the command of Generals Schuyler and Mont- 
gomery, who passed up Lake Champlain, and early in September 
appeared before St. John's, a town at the head of the lake, not far 
distant from Montreal, and the first British post in Canada. 

For the twofold purpose of preventing or committing invasion, 
General Carleton, the Governor of Canada, had placed nearly a 
thousand men in Fort St. John. In the meanwhile, hearing of the 
success of Allen and Arnold, General Gage had sent Brigadier-Gene- 
ral Prescott and a few other officers to Montreal to aid General 
Carleton ; and about the time the provincials appeared before the 
fortress, Colonel Guy Johnstone arrived there with seven hundred 
Indian warriors of the Five Nations, and offered their services to 
the Governor. But they were not accepted, and many of them soon 
afterwards joined the provincial army. 

Finding themselves opposed by so large a force, the provincials 
retired to, and fortified Aux Noix, an island in the lake about one 
hundred and fifteen miles north of Ticonderoga. As soon as the 
work was accomplished, General Schuyler hastened to Ticonderoga 
for reinforcements, but being attacked by a severe illness, the whole 
command devolved upon General Montgomery, a young, active, and 
courageous officer, and skilful military tactitian. 

He at once made preparations to attack Montreal, and for this 
purpose, opened a battery against St. John's ; but want of necessary 



174 



THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 



[1775. 



Capture of Ethan Allen. 



Expedition of Arnold. 



ammunition made the progress of the siege a slow one. By 



a Oct. 13. 



a sudden movement, he captured Fort Chambly, a a few 
miles north of St. John's, and obtained several pieces of cannon and 
a large amount of powder. 

The intrepid Ethan Allen, who participated in these movements, 
offered to take one hundred and fifty picked men at night, and cap- 
ture Montreal. Leave was granted him, and the brave Colonel with 
only eighty men crossed the St. Lawrence, and before daylight 
approached the town. He was met by British troops and French 
Canadians of the place, under Major Campbell, and after a severe 
battle, was defeated, and himself taken prisoner and sent to England 
in irons. Fifteen of his men were killed, and seven wounded. 

On the third of November, St. John's surrendered unconditionally, 
with upwards of five hundred regulars and one hundred Canadian 
volunteers. As General Carleton could not get reinforcements, and 
hearing that Colonel Arnold with another American force was ap- 
proaching Point Levi, he embarked his men, and retreated down the 
St. Lawrence to stop Arnold's progress. Carleton was conveyed in 
a whale-boat, with muffled oars, down the river, and through Mont- 
gomery's rafts, on a dark night, and reached Quebec in safety. 
Montgomery left St. John's immediately on its surrender, leaving a 
small garrison for its defence, and darting across the St. Lawrence, 
entered Montreal without much opposition. On the thirteenth it 
capitulated, and leaving a small garrison there, he hastened towards 
Quebec, to meet the army under Arnold, which, by forced marches, 
through a dreary wilderness, succeeded in reaching the banks of the 
St. Lawrence at Point Levi, on the ninth of November.* When 

* This expedition of Arnold, in its conception and execution, is one of the most 
remarkable on record, and whatever blemishes afterwards appeared upon his 
character, one thing cannot be denied — he was a man of great sagacity and 
boldness of character, and as brave an officer as ever commanded an army. At his 
own request, he was despatched to Quebec, with about eleven hundred men. The 
route was then a dreary desert, intersected by dense forests and swamps. Start- 
ing from Cambridge, the head-quarters of the army blockading Boston, he marched 
one hundred and thirty miles northward of that city, and embarked with his men 
in batteaux upon the rough and tortuous Kennebec. He was quite ignorant of the 
character of the stream he was ascending, it having never been surveyed. He 
found strong currents, craggy rocks, dangerous shoals, and numerous falls and rapids ; 
but nothing daunted, he pursued his toilsome journey. But Colonel Enos, his second 
in command, got embarrassed in the windings of the Dead River, a branch of the 
Kennebec, and finding it impossible to procure food for his soldiers, gave up in 
despair, and returned to Cambridge, with nearly one-third of the whole detachment. 

Finding it impossible to follow the river further, Arnold abandoned his batteaux 

and forced his way through forests, swamps, and broad savannahs, and for thirty-two 

long days, he traversed a howling wilderness, where no signs of human life met his 

eye.* His patriot troops suffered dreadfully from hunger and cold, yet scarcely a 

* This country is now the State of Maine. 



chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 175 

Arrival of Montgomery and Arnold at Quebec. Siege of Quebec. 

Montgomery arrived, he found that he had only about four hundred 
effective men, his garrisons and desertions having thus reduced his 
army. 

Previous to the arrival of Montgomery, and on the day that Mon- 
treal capitulated, Arnold crossed the St. Lawrence, ascend- 

i ■ e i • ii a Nov - lX 

ed the heights of Abraham, at the point where the brave 
Wolfe scaled them, and drew up his forces upon the plain. But he 
found the garrison too strong for him, and he retreated to Point 
Aux Trembles, twenty miles above Quebec, and there awaited the 
arrival of Montgomery.* Had Arnold reached* there a little sooner, 
he might have taken General Carleton and his staff prisoners, for 
they left it but a few hours previously. 

On the arrival of Montgomery,* the two forces were 
united, and numbered about nine hundred men. They 
marched upon Quebec, which was then strongly garrisoned, the 
forces of General Carleton having been added to those of Colonel 
McLean. Montgomery sent a flag and summoned the garrison to 
surrender. The summons was answered by firing upon the bearer 
of the flag. . Finding a siege necessary, he opened a six gun battery 
within seven hundred yards of the walls. c His heaviest 

, , . « Dec 2U. 

guns being twelve-pounders, they were too light to make a 
breach, and, after a long and ineffectual siege, the two officers deter- 
mined upon an assault at night. This was an exceedingly dangerous 
enterprise, and nothing but the desperate nature of the case, like 
that of Wolfe, could have justified the temerity that planned it. But. 
they must either abandon the siege, and retreat homewards, amid 
the rigors of a Canadian winter, or make the desperate effort. The 
latter was their determination. 

Between four and five o'clock in the morning on the thirty-first of 
December, in the midst of a heavy storm of snow, the American 
troops, arranged in four columns, were put in motion. Two of them,, 
under Majors Livingston and Brown, were to make, two feigned 
attacks upon the upper town ; while the other two, led by Mont- 
murmur escaped their lips. On the third of November he reached the first Cana- 
dian settlement on the river Chaudiere, which flows into the St. Lawrence' nearly 
opposite Quebec. He had then divided the last fragment of provisions among his 
men, and after resting for two or three days, and procuring a scanty supply of food 
from the thin population, he took up his line of march along the banks of the 
Chaudiere, and reached Point Levi, opposite Quebec, on the ninth of November. 

* When Arnold first arrived opposite Quebec, the garrison was very weak, and it 
would doubtless have been obliged to surrender to him unconditionally, if he could 
have crossed the river immediately on his arrival. But for five days a terrible 
storm raged, and he could procure no boats. In the meanwhile, Colonel McLean 
and his brave Highlanders, who had been falling back from the Sorel, to reach the 
citv, succeeded, and thus saved it. 

12 



176 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 

Death of General Montgomery. Capture of Arnold's Division. 

gomery and Arnold, were to make real attacks upon the lower town, 
upon opposite sides. Montgomery advanced along a narrow strip 
of beach by the way of Cape Diamond, and passed a piquet and 
block, which were quickly deserted on his approach. His progress 
was much impeded by enormous masses of ice which the current of 
the river had piled up, and his men, slipping and clambering, were 
stretched along in a thin line, in a peculiarly exposed position. Some 
English sailors and Highland soldiers stood silently at the battery as 
the Americans approached, and when they arrived within about forty 
paces, a cannon loaded with grape shot, was discharged, and dealt 
death on every side. The brave Montgomery,* Captain McPherson, 
his aide-de-camp, Captain Cheeseman, an orderly-sergeant, and a 
private, were instantly killed, and several others were slightly 
wounded. Seeing their officers fall, the soldiers retreated in great 
confusion. 

In the meanwhile, Arnold had entered the town, and at the head 
of his men, proceeded to capture a battery of two twelve-pounders, 
situated in a narrow street. The artillery with one cannon upon a 
sledge, led the van, followed by a company of riflemen, under Cap- 
tain Morgan, afterwards distinguished for his brave exploits at the 
south. When near the battery, they received a flank fire of mus- 
ketry, and Arnold, severely wounded in the leg, was carried to the 
hospital. Morgan took the command, and rushing forward, secured 
the battery. The English and Canadians now pressed upon them 
from all sides, and finding it impossible to retreat, the Americans, to 
the number of three hundred and forty, after a contest of several 
hours, surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Between sixty and 
seventy Americans were killed. 

Arnold, with the remnant of the army, retreated up the river, 
three miles above Quebec, where he received occasional reinforce- 
ments, and maintained his position during the winter. General 
Thomas, who was appointed to succeed Montgomery, arrived there 

* The body of Montgomery was borne off the field by Major (afterwards Colonel) 
Aaron Burr, who accompanied Arnold in his march through the wilderness. Burr 
was within six feet of his general when he fell. Montgomery was deeply lamented 
by all. He had distinguished himself in the French and Indian wars, had shared 
the toils, and hardships, and honors of Wolfe, and, when the Revolution broke out, 
joined the American army. He had previously purchased an estate upon the Hud- 
son River, in the county of Duchess, and married the daughter of Robert Living- 
ston, one of the leading patriots of the Revolution. His body was found in the 
snow, the day after the battle, and by order of General Carleton, it was buried 
with the honors due to an officer of his rank. Congress subsequently directed a 
monument to be erected to his memory ; and in 1818, at the expense of the State 
of New York, his remains were placed near the monument, a basso-relievo, under 
the portico of St. Paul's church in the city of New York. 



chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 177 

Death of General Thomas. Patrick Henry and Governor Dunmore, of Virginia. 

early in May ; but Governor Carleton, having about that time 
received large reinforcements from England, marched against the 
Americans, and obliged them to make a hasty retreat, leaving all 
their stores and many of the sick in the hands of the enemy. The 
sick were very humanely treated, and after being well fed and 
clothed, were allowed a safe return home. 

At the mouth of the river Sorel, General Thomas was reinforced 
by several regiments, but was unable to maintain his position. He 
there died of the small-pox. The American army retreated a June 18 
from post to post, and finally entirely evacuated Canada. 1776 

While these events were transpiring at the North, and New Eng- 
land was in open rebellion, the other Colonies were in a blaze, and 
eager to join the standard of revolt. In Virginia, a tempest of indig- 
nation was raised against Lord Dunmore, the Governor, in conse- 
quence of publicity having been given to some of his letters, con- 
taining language similar to those of Hutchinson. This indignation 
was increased by various subsequent impolitic acts, and, finally, an 
open rupture took place. A Provincial Congress having been 
formed, and provision made to arm the inhabitants, as in New Eng- 
land, the Governor unwisely considered it necessary to remove the 
powder of the magazine at Williamsburgh, on board an b A ., ^ 
English vessel of war. This was done at night,* and the 1775 
next morning the people, highly indignant, demanded its immediate 
restitution. The Governor refused, but pledged his word and honor, 
that if the powder was wanted to quell a dreaded insurrection of the 
slaves, it should be immediately restored. 

But the stern sense of justice of Patrick Henry could not be 
satisfied with this compromise, and his keen perception of the ten- 
dency of events around him, decided him to prepare at once for 
energetic measures. He called together a company of vol- 
unteers, c under the command of Captain Meredith, and 
aroused their patriotism by his burning eloquence. They decided that 
the powder must be immediately restored, or its equivalent in money 
paid into the provincial treasury. Captain Meredith resigned his 
command, and Henry, placing himself at the head of the company, 
marched towards Williamsburgh, to present their dictum to the 
Governor. The news of the movement spread like wild-fire, and 
the popularity of the leader was so attractive, that before he reached 
the seat of government, nearly five thousand people had joined his 
standard. The royalists were dismayed, and lukewarm patriots 
were greatly alarmed. The family of Lord Dunmore was conveyed 
on board a ship of war for safety, and his residence was strongly 
garrisoned by marines. But the Governor saw that resistance was 



178 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 

Burning of Norfolk by Governor Dunmore. Abdication of Colonial Governors 

vain, and on the morning of the fourth of May, he caused Henry to 
be met, and payment to be made for the powder, to the full amount 
claimed by him.* Other events soon after followed, which so much 
excited the people against the Governor, that he deemed it prudent 
to abdicate the government, and take shelter with his family again, on 
board the Fowey man-of-war. He endeavored during the summer 
and autumn to regain his lost power, by attacks at different points, 
by small detachments from the vessel, but finding that these expedi- 
tions incensed without awing the people, he resolved upon bolder and 
more cruel measures. He authoritatively summoned all capable of 
bearing arms, and offered freedom to the slaves who should join his 
standard ! By these means he collected a force sufficient to lake 
possession of Norfolk, the principal sea-port of Virginia. The pro- 
vincials assembled a considerable body of troops to dislodge them, and 
succeeded in driving Lord Dunmore and the loyalists and blacks under 
his charge, back on board the Fowey, where he was greatly annoyed 
by discharges of musketry from the houses near the water. In the 
meantime, the frigate Liverpool arrived, and the Governor sent word 
to the provincials, that they must furnish provisions for the vessels, 
and stop firing, or he would bombard the town. The inhabitants 
refused, and the Liverpool, two corvettes, and the Fowey, opened a 
destructive cannonade upon the town. At the same time some marines 
a Jan i landed and set fire to the houses, and, in a short time, Nor- 

I776 ' folk was reduced to ashes." Even this atrocious act did not 
awe the people into submission ; and finding further attempts to 
regain his power useless, he sailed for the West Indies, where he left 
the negroes, and proceeded to join the main army. 

Governor Martin, of North Carolina, Lord William Campbell, 
Governor of South Carolina, and Governor Tryon, of New York, 
became involved in similar troubles, and respectively took refuge for 
safety on board English ships of war. The Governors of other 
Colonies., who contrived to retain their places, were obliged to do so 
at the expense of all power, for nowhere were the officers of the 
Crown allowed to exercise jurisdiction. 

More difficulties occurred in New York than in any other Colony, 
except Massachusetts and Virginia, on account of the many royalists 
and timid patriots who resided there. Governor Tryon had been 
notified by Lord Dartmoor, that the commanders of vessels had 
orders to act against any city, where troops were raised, or fortifica- 
tions erected, as open rebels. This order Tryon took special pains 
to make generally known, and as New York was greatly exposed to 
attacks from the sea, the ardor of the revolutionists made but little 

* Three hundred and thirty pounds sterling. 



chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 179 

Destruction of a Tory printer's press in New York. Proceedings of Congress. 

head against the loyalty of some and the fears of others. Still, a 
tone of defiance was observed. A Committee of Public Safety was 
appointed, and other measures, calculated to carry out the plans of 
the General Congress, were adopted. Several tumults occurred 
during the summer and autumn, caused by the conflicting sentiments 
of Whigs and Tories. The printing-press of James Rivington, a 
tory printer, was broken, and his type melted and cast into bullets ;* 
and various indignities were offered to those who sided with the 
government. On the other hand, the Tories did everything in their 
power to embarrass the movements of the revolutionary party, defeat 
the plans of the General Congress, and to give aid to the British 
ships anchored in the bay, by supplying them with provisions and 
other stores. 

Finally, in October, the General Congress perceiving an increase 
of defection from the American cause, in the Colony of New York, 
adopted a recommendation to Provincial Congresses to "arrest and 
secure every person in the respective Colonies, whose going at large 
might, in their opinion, endanger the safety of the Colonies, or the 
liberties of America." Governor Tryon at once saw what would 
be the effect of this recommendation, and fled for refuge on board 
the Halifax packet, lying in the harbor, from whence he kept up a 
constant intercourse with the royalists on shore. 

During the summer and autumn, the General Congress was busy 
in the consummation of plans to carry on the war with vigor. They 
considered a plan for a confederation of all the Colonies, under the title 
of the Thirteen United Colonies of North America ; issued, 
bills of credit, at various times, to the amount of six millions of 
Spanish dollars ; adopted an address to the people of Canada ; a 
declaration of the causes which led to the war ; a petition to the 
King ; an address to the people of Great Britain, and also to the 
people of Ireland ;f established a Post Office ;| and assumed all the 
duties and powers of an independent government. 

* About noon on the third of November, a company of light horse, seventy-five 
in number, under Captain Sears, a member of the New York Provincial Congress, 
armed with muskets and bayonets, marched into the city and demolished the obnox- 
ious establishment. On their road back, they seized the Rev. Mr. Seabury (a cler- 
gyman of the Church of England), and two or three others, and carried them pri- 
soners to Connecticut. These high-handed measures were not justified by the 
intelligent Whigs — still, such was" the excited state of the times, no attempt was 
thought prudent to be made, to punish the offenders. 

"i See Appendix, Note VI. 

| Doctor Franklin, finding a reconciliation with the home government past 
all hope, returned to America in April, and was immediately elected a delegate to 
the General Congress from the Colony of Pennsylvania. He was one of the most 
useful and active men in that body. In August he was appointed Postmaster-Gene- 
ral, with a salary of one thousand dollars per annum. 



180 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 

Deplorable Condition of the Continental Army. Washington's Appeal to Congress. 

While the whole country was lifting high the arm of defiance, ^ T 
and looking to the Continental army at Cambridge for its support, 
gloomy forebodings for the future disturbed the mind of the 
commander-in-chief. The troops under him were in a distressed 
condition for meeting the rigors of the approaching winter, and 
Washington found that their destitution, coupled with the disastrous 
result of the conflict on Breed's Hill, would cause many to leave 
the army on the expiration of their term of enlistment. As none 
of any importance could be added to his army without the concur- 
rence of either the General Congress, or the Provincial Assemblies, 
he feared the effects of delay which large bodies always exhibit. 
He earnestly solicited Congress to take measures for the 

a Sept. 20. J . ° 

next enlistment, and to provide comforts for the army." On 
the eighteenth of October, Franklin, Lynch, and Harrison, a committee 
of Congress, arrrived at his head-quarters, and soon arranged matters 
satisfactorily. Authority was given to levy twenty-six regiments of 
about eight hundred men each, independently of the militia. Con- 
gress, however, would not consent to the enlistment of soldiers for 
more than a year, nor did they agree to give a bounty until the 
next January. It required all Washington's firmness and address to 
induce soldiers again to enlist, and when the period of their first 
enlistment expired, and new ones were made, he found his force 
reduced to about five thousand men. These were afterwards rein- 
forced ; but had an active enemy witnessed this dissolution and 
re-assemblage of an army, the result must have been disastrous in the 
extreme.* 

Notwithstanding the coast swarmed with American privateers,! 
and Congress had ordered that five ships of thirty-two guns, five of 
twenty-eight guns, and three of twenty-four guns, should be built 

* As early as the twentieth of September, he wrote thus to Congress: — "It 
gives me great distress to oblige me to solicit the attention of the honorable Con- 
gress to the state of this army, in terms which imply the slightest apprehension of 
being neglected. But my situation is inexpressibly distressing, to see the winter 
fast approaching upon a naked army ; the time of their service within a few weeks 
of expiring ; and no provision yet made for such important events. Added to these, 
the military chest is totally exhausted ; the Paymaster has not a single dollar in 
hand. The Commissary-General assures me he has strained his credit for the sub- 
sistence of the army to the utmost. The Quarter-master-General is precisely in 
the same situation ; and the greater part of the troops are in a state not far from 
mutiny upon a deduction from their stated allowance." — Washington's Letters. 

f The privateers captured many English vessels loaded with provisions and am- 
munition for the British land and naval forces on our coast ; and some of them, with 
unequalled skill and intrepidity, extended their expeditions to the coast of Africa, 
and seized the powder of the British forts, before the garrisons were aware of the 
outbreak in America. They also landed on the island of Bermuda, surprised the 
magazine, and carried off all the powder. 



chap, v.] EVENTS OF 1775. 181 



Proceedings in Parliament. 



and put to sea with all possible speed, yet the people on the coast 
dreaded the assaults of the British navy. The- distress in Boston 
caused descents to be made upon coast towns to procure provisions. 
Falmouth, in Massachusetts, refusing to give aid, was laid in ashes ; 
Newport was threatened with a similar fate, and indeed all the sea- 
ports were so entirely exposed that not the least safety was felt. 
These things made Washington dread extensive defection on the 
part of the exposed Colonists : and, together with the mutinous 
spirit engendered by privations, becoming fearfully visible in the 
army, made his fears of a general miscarriage painful in the extreme. 
The disastrous campaign at the north deepened the gloom that 
brooded over the Colonists, and the year 1775 closed without much 
hope for the success of the Americans. 

Parliament assembled on the twenty-sixth of October, and the 
burden of the speech from the throne was the intelligence of events 
transpiring in America. Members declared their belief that the 
Colonists aimed at complete independence, and recommended deci- 
sive exertions to crush the rebellion ; the adoption of resolves to 
pardon the misguided of the rebels who should repent, and the 
appointment of commissioners, resident in America, to have discre- 
tionary power to grant pardons, and also indemnity to any province 
that should return to its allegiance. They stated that offers of aid 
had been received from several foreign powers, and that no reason 
existed for apprehending hostility or impediment, in any quarter. 

Ministers determined upon the most vigorous measures to put 
down the rebellion, so fiercely blazing in the Colonies. The late 
events in America had awakened a false national pride, and addresses 
poured in from various parts of the kingdom, expressing assurance 
of public support. The petition to the King, sent by Congress, was 
rejected by ministers as coming from an illegal hody, and, as they 
expressed it, " consisting only of a series of empty professions, 
which their actions belie." 

The debates in both Houses of Parliament on the adoption of an 
address to the King, which was but an echo, in sentiment, to his 
speech, were very warm. Still, ministers maintained their usual 
majorities, although the opposition gained a few accessions to their 
numbers. Among them was the Duke of Grafton, who, misled, as 
he said, by the supposition that the measures of ministers would 
issue in a peaceful adjustment of difficulties, now urged a liberal 
course of conciliation, by repealing all the obnoxious acts passed 
since 1763. The cabinet, however, would not concur with him, and 
he resigned the seals and took a decided place in the ranks of the 
opposition. Severe sickness silenced the thunders of Chatham's 



182 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1775. 

Burke's plan for conciliation. Martial Law declared in the Colonies by Parliament. 

eloquence upon the floor of the Senate, but Camden, Shelburne, and 
Richmond, nobly defended the cause of the Americans. They 
declared that in every instance Great Britain had been the aggressor, 
and that her proceedings had been unjust, oppressive, and cruel in 
the extreme. Wilkes, then Lord Mayor, said ministers had wrested 
the sceptre from the hands of his Majesty. Colonel Barre severely 
censured the actors in the campaign at Boston. " The British 
army," said he, " is a mere wen — a little excrescence on the vast 
continent of America ;" and he assured ministers that defeat was 
certain. Fox characterized Lord North as the blundering pilot who 
had brought the vessel of State into its present difficulties ; " in one 
campaign he had lost a whole country." Mr. Adam charged Lord 
North with indolence and inaction. The minister justified that 
inaction on the ground that he had been deceived by events, never 
imagining that all America would simultaneously have arisen in arms. 
The address was carried in the Commons, one hundred and seventy- 
six to seventy-two ; in the Lords, seventy-five to thirty-two. 

In the House of Lords, the Duke of Richmond introduced the 
petition of Congress to the King ; and observing Mr. Richard Penn, 
from Pennsylvania,* in the house, he, with much difficulty, obtained 
permission that he should be examined before them. Governor Penn 
declared his belief that the Colonies were willing to acknowledge 
the legislative authority of Great Britain, and did not aim at inde- 
pendence ; that they would resist arbitrary taxation, and all the other 
obnoxious acts, so that, if no concessions were made, they would 
not hesitate in seeking the aid of foreign powers. The Duke then 
moved that the petition afforded ground for conciliation, but it was 
lost, by eighty-six to thirty-nine. 

Mr. Burke proposed a plan in the Commons, for conciliation. It 
included a repeal of the Boston Port Bill ; a promise not to tax 
America ; a general amnesty ; and the calling of a Congress, by 
royal authority, for the adjustment of remaining difficulties. This 
plan rather pleased Lord North, but he was so well assured that it 
would not effect its intended objects, that he would not accept it. 
The proposition was lost by a large majority. 

Lord North then introduced a bill, prohibiting all intercourse or 
trade with the Colonies, till they should submit, and placing the 
whole country under martial law. This bill included the suggestion 
of the King, to appoint resident commissioners, with discretionary 
powers, to grant pardons, and effect indemnities. The bill received 



* The petition was sent to England by the hand of Governor Penn, and he and 
Arthur Lee were instructed to procure its presentation. 



CHAP. V.] 



EVENTS OF 1775. 



183 



Engagement of German mercenary troops for the British Army in America. 

the sweeping majority in the Commons of one hundred and twelve 
to sixteen ; in the Lords, seventy-eight to nineteen. 

Having determined, by this bill, to employ force, the next neces- 
sary step was to procure it. Twenty-eight thousand seamen, and a 
land force of fifty-five thousand men, were declared to be the neces- 
sary number. Having only a small peace establishment at home, 
and unwilling to wait for volunteers, or for the return of troops from 
foreign stations, ministers resolved to hire soldiers of some of 
the German princes, and at the beginning of 1776 a treaty for that 
purpose was concluded with several of them. The Landgrave of 
Hesse-Cassel agreed to furnish twelve thousand one hundred and 
four men ; the Duke of Brunswick, four thousand and eighty-four ; 
the Prince of Hesse, six hundred and sixty-eight ; the Prince of 
Waldeck, six hundred and seventy ; making in all, seventeen thou- 
sand five hundred and twenty-six. These princes, perceiving the 
stern want of the British government, extorted very advantageous 
terms. They received seven pounds four shillings and four pence 
sterling for each man, besides being relieved from the burden of 
maintaining them. In addition to these considerations, they were to 
receive a certain stipend, amounting in all to one hundred and thirty- 
five thousand pounds sterling ; and further, England guaranteed the 
dominions of these princes against foreign attack. 

These hired mercenaries, whose employment by the British 
government added twofold odium to the oppressive measures about 
to be enforced, formed that portion of the army of Great Britain 
during the first years of the contest, known as the Hessia?is. 



>) I X. D rO-^KNL tO tARS/ 



LiQLARS/O 



No. ifS-f/ 




Six ®0££%&§. 

THIS Bill entitles the 
,___ Bearer to Teceivf 
SIX SPANISH MILLFD 
DOLLARS, or the 
"Value thereof in GOLD 
Ov SILVEK-accordins (o 
a Resolution of COM 
GRES& pMiMal Phi- 
ladelphia NaV-Z- \"jl<S' 




o£6 



Continental Paper Money. 



EVENTS OF 1776. 




Richard Henry Lee— Earl Cornwallis— Sir Henry Clinton. 



CHAPTER VI. 

N the twenty-ninth of February, the treaties 
entered into by Great Britain with the several 
German princes for the hire of troops, were 
laid before Parliament, and a motion to refer 
them to the Committee of Supply gave rise 
to a long and stormy debate. The enor- 
mous price paid for the services of those mer- 
cenaries, and the odious character of the 
whole transaction, viewed in the light of justice, and the spirit which 
should characterize Christian nations, even though hostile to each 
other, afforded ample theme for invective and just censure. It was 




186 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1776. 

Debates in Parliament relative to the Germnn Troops. 

bad enough for English troops to be sent to slaughter their own 
brethren, under the plea of necessity — a necessity arising from the 
relation of government and the governed, which precedent had 
established, and which true conceptions of rights inalienable had 
demanded should be interrupted ; but to hire the bone and sinew, 
and lives of foreign troops — purchased assassins — to aid in the con- 
summation of the wicked deed, caused a foul stain upon the escutch- 
eon of Great Britain, which her best friends saw and deplored. The 
opposition in Parliament, with a sincere concern for the fair fame 
of their country, used every laudable endeavor to prevent the trans- 
action; and when in spite of their efforts it was consummated, they 
indignantly cast upon it the odium it deserved. The most gloomy 
view was taken of the condition and prospects of the British force, 
for it was evident that almost total defection from government existed 
in the Colonies. It was represented that these German soldiers, as 
soon as they found the broad Atlantic rolling between them and their 
masters, and stood side by side with their happy brethren in America, 
now ardent in the cause of Liberty,* would accept land of the 
Colonists, sheathe the sword, and leave British troops to do the dire 
work which their German masters had sent them to perform. On 
the other hand, ministers counted largely upon the valor and military 
character of these Hessians, many of whom had seen service under 
Frederick the Great ; and they actually asserted that such would be 
the terror which they would inspire, that it would only be necessary 
for them to show themselves, to cause the Americans to lay down 
their arms ! Lord North's motion for reference was carried by a 
majority of two hundred and forty-two to eighty-eight. 

When the committee reported," another warm debate ensued, and 
the Duke of Richmond moved not only to countermand the 
order for the mercenaries to proceed to America, but to sus- 
pend hostilities altogether. The Earl of Coventry inveighed against 
the employment of foreign troops to fight the battles of England, pro- 
nounced the war unjust, and maintained that an immediate recogni- 
tion of the independence of the United Colonies was preferable to 
war. " Look on the map of the globe," said he, " view Great Bri- 
tain and North America, compare their extent, consider the soil, 
rivers, climate, and increasing population of the latter ; nothing but 
the most obstinate blindness and partiality can engender a serious 
opinion that such a country will long continue under subjection to 
this. The question is not, therefore, how we shall be able to realize 

* It was estimated that, at the time the Revolution broke out, there were about 
one hundred and fifty thousand German emigrants in the American Colonies, the 
most of whom took sides with the patriots. 



chap, vi.] EVENTS OF 1776. 187 

The Earl of Coventry's sound views. The mysterious French Agent. 

a vain, delusive scheme of dominion, but how we shall make it the 
interest of the Americans to continue faithful allies and warm friends. 
Surely that can never be effected by fleets and armies. Instead of 
meditating conquest, and exhausting our own strength in an ineffect- 
ual struggle, we should wisely, abandoning wild schemes of coer- 
cion, avail ourselves of the only substantial benefit we can ever 
expect, the profits of an extensive commerce, and the strong support 
of a firm and friendly alliance and compact for mutual defence and 
assistance."* 

Language like this, and other expositions of the weakness and 
wickedness of the government, called forth the denunciations of the 
ministerial party ; and Lord Temple declared that rebellion abroad 
was encouraged by harangues in Parliament. " The next easterly 
wind," said he, " will carry to America every imprudent expression 
used in this debate." He deplored the exposition of their weakness, 
and said, " It is time to act, not to talk ; much should be done, little 
said." Richmond's motion was negatived, one hundred against 
thirty-two. 

On the fourteenth of March the Duke of Grafton proposed an 
address to the King, requesting that a proclamation might be issued 
to declare that if the Colonists should, within a reasonable time, 
show a willingness to treat with commissioners,! or present a peti- 
tion, hostilities should be suspended and their petition be received 
and respected. He assured the House that both France and Spain 
were arming ; and alarmed them by the assertion that " two French 
gentlemen had been to America, had conferred with Washington at 
his camp, and had since been to Philadelphia to confer with the 
Congress."| After a long debate, the Duke's motion was lost, by 

* Pictorial History of the Reign of George III., vol. i., p. 251. 

f On the twentieth of November, 1775, Parliament repealed the Boston Port and 
other restraining bills, and enacted a general one prohibiting all trade with the 
Colonies. They also provided for the appointment of commissioners, who should 
be invested with both civil and military powers, authorized to grant pardons or 
fight battles. 

% Some time in the month of November, 1775, Congress was informed that a 
foreigner was in Philadelphia who was desirous of making to them a confidential 
communication. At first no notice was taken of it, but the intimation having been 
several times repeated, a committee consisting of John Jay, Dr. Franklin and Tho- 
mas Jefferson, was appointed to hear what he had to say. They agreed to meet 
him in a room in Carpenters' Hall, and at the time appointed, they found him there, 
an elderly, lame gentleman, and apparently a wounded French officer. He told them 
that the French King was greatly pleased with the exertions for liberty which the 
Americans were making ; that he wished them success, and would, whenever it 
should be necessary, manifest more openly his friendly sentiments towards them. 
The committee requested to know his authority for giving these assurances. He 
answered only by drawing his hand across his throat, and saying, " Gentlemen, I 
shall take care of my head " They then asked what demonstrations of friendship 



168 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1776. 

Siege of Boston. Its danger of destruction by fire. 

a majority of ninety-one against thirty-one. One or two other similar 
propositions were made, but to no effect. Fox called for an inquiry 
into the causes of the failure of the military operations in America, 
but his motion for the call was lost. A motion was also made, but 
lost, to have a perpetual Parliament during the difficulties with the 
Colonists. 

On the twenty-third of May, his Majesty, after speaking of the 
state of the Colonies, expressed a hope that his rebellious subjects 
would yet submit, but desired legislators to be prepared for acting 
with great decision, if they did not submit. He then prorogued 
Parliament. 

While preparations were making in England to send out a large 
reinforcement of troops to join General Howe at Boston, the block- 
ading provincial army began vigorous preparations for besieging the 
city, confidently expecting to make the British force therein prison- 
ers of war. By the middle of February, the number of regular 
troops under Washington, which, at the close of 1775, amounted to 
only about nine thousand men, was' augmented to fourteen thousand. 
Congress, perceiving that the forces there would soon be needed for 
the protection of other parts of the American territory, urged Wash- 
ington to take decisive measures for driving the enemy from Boston. 
Washington proposed an immediate attack upon the city, but was 
overruled by the other officers in a council of war, particularly by 
Gates and Ward, and he resolved to occupy the heights of Dorches- 
ter, which completely commanded the city. The Americans erected 
strong batteries upon the shore at Cobb's Hill, at Lechmere's Point, 
at Phipp's Farm, and at Lamb's Dam, near Roxbury, for the purpose 
of occupying the attention of the enemy in that quarter. On the 
night of the second of March they opened a terrible fire upon the 
city, having a large number of bombs and heavy artillery captured 
at Ticonderoga. Almost incessantly the bombs fell in the city, and 
the garrison was constantly employed in extinguishing the flames of 
the houses which they had set on fire. This cannonade was kept up 
until the evening of the fourth, while fresh troops of militia were 
coming in from all quarters. 

On that evening, everything being prepared, the Americans, about 

they might expect from the King of France. " Gentlemen," answered he, " if you 
want arms you shall have them ; if you want ammunition you shall have it; if you 
want money you shall have it." The committee observed that these were impor- 
tant assurances, and again desired to know by what authority they were made. 
" Gentlemen," said he, again drawing his hand across his throat, " I shall take 
care of my head ;" and this was the only answer they could obtain from him. 
He was seen in Philadelphia no more. — See Life of John Jay, written by his son 
William Jay. 



chap, vi.] EVENTS OF 1776. 189 

Fortifications upon Dorchester Heights. Proposition of General Howe to evacuate Boston. 

two thousand strong, under General Thomas, proceeded in profound 
silence towards the heights of Dorchester. The night was a dark 
one, and the wind, blowing away from Boston, was favorable for 
their concealment, and they reached the heights unobserved. The 
Americans went vigorously to work, and so amazing was their ac- 
tivity, that by ten o'clock they completed two forts, which would 
afford tolerable protection ; one on the height nearest the city, 
the other towards Castle William. At daybreak the next morning, 
the British, with dread surprise, witnessed an apparition similar to 
that presented on Breed's Hill on the morning of the seventeenth of 
June in the preceding year. The first intimation they had of this 
movement of the provincials, was the appearance of a dangerous 
battery and fortifications, from whence General Thomas began to 
thunder at the town and ships of war. 

From this point, the cannon of the Americans could sweep the 
city and the whole harbor. This, both General Howe and the British 
admiral saw, and they determined to take measures to dislodge 
General Thomas at once. For this purpose, Lord Percy was 
despatched with three thousand men, who embarked in transports, 
with a view of proceeding up the river to the foot of Dorchester 
Hill. But a furious storm arose, which rendered the harbor impas- 
sable, and the attack was necessarily deferred. Meanwhile, Wash- 
ington diligently perfected measures to prevent the attack at that 
point, or to meet it successfully, if made. He also planned an attack 
upon the town at the same time, with four thousand men under the 
command of Generals Sullivan and Green. General Mifflin had also 
prepared a great number of hogsheads full of stones and sand, 
which he intended to roll down the heights of Dorchester, when the 
enemy were ascending them, and thus sweep off whole columns at 
once. 

General Howe, becoming acquainted with these various plans 
and preparations, came to the wise and humane conclusion that " pru- 
dence was the better part of valor ;" and having some time before 
received orders from Lord Dartmouth, one of the Secretaries of 
State, to evacuate Boston, and establish himself at New York, he 
concluded this occasion was the most favorable one to obey those 
orders. Accordingly a flag was sent out from the Selectmen 
of Boston, by order of General Howe, acquainting Wash- 
ington with his design to evacuate the city, and to intimate his in- 
tention to leave the town standing, provided he should be allowed 
to embark unmolested. This communication not being signed by 
Howe, Washington took no notice of it officially, but instructed 
some of his officers to intimate that the terms, if properly presented, 



190 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1770- 

Triumphant entree of the Americans into Boston. Departure of Soldiers and Tories 

would be complied with. General Howe designated the fifteenth as 
the day for the embarkation of the troops, and meanwhile, more than 
fifteen hundred tory families, dreading the just indignation of their 
countrymen, prepared to embark in the same vessels. During the 
interim, all was confusion, and lawless bands of soldiers took every 
opportunity to plunder the houses of the inhabitants. General 
Howe took strong measures to prevent these outrages, but to little 
purpose. 

The prevalence of a strong east wind delayed their departure 
until the seventeenth. At four in the morning, they began their 
embarkation, and at ten, all were on board, the number of troops 
being about seven thousand. The rear guard was scarcely out of 
the city, when, to the great joy of the inhabitants,* Washington 
entered it on the other side, with drums beating, colors flying, and all 
the display of a glorious triumph.! General Putnam, with a division 
of the army, had entered it the day previous. So crowded were 
the vessels with the tory emigrants and their effects, that Howe was 
obliged to leave behind him two hundred and fifty pieces of cannon 
(half of which were serviceable), four large mortars, one hundred 
and fifty horses, twenty-five thousand bushels of wheat, and a quan- 
tity of barley, oats, and other provisions, which our army then greatly 
needed. 

Through the reprehensible want of foresight of General Howe, 
no cruiser was left in the vicinity, to warn British ships of his 
departure. The consequence was, that several store-ships from 
England soon after unsuspectingly sailed into the harbor, and fell 
into the hands of the Americans.} Shortly after that, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Campbell, with seven hundred men direct from Britain, 
sailed into the harbor and became prisoners. 

Washington, ignorant of the destination of General Howe, strongly 
suspected that he had sailed for New York, with the view of taking 
possession, and fortifying that city. This result he greatly dreaded, 

* It was indeed a joyful day for Boston. Sixteen long months they had endured 
hunger, cold, and every privation. The most necessary articles of food had risen 
to an exorbitant price. A pound of fresh fish cost twenty-three cents ; a goose two 
dollars ; a turkey three dollars ; a duck one dollar ; hams fifty cents a pound. 
Vegetables were altogether wanting. A sheep cost about nine dollars ; apples eight 
dollars a barrel ; firewood ten dollars a cord, and finally, fuel could not be procured 
at all. In some instances, the pews and benches of churches were taken for fuel, 
and the counters of warehouses, and even houses not inhabited, were demolished 
for the sake of the wood. 

f Congress passed a vote of thanks to Washington and his army, and directed a 
gold medal, commemorative of the event, to be struck. 

f One of these ships had on board fifteen hundred barrels of gunpowder, and 
other munitions of war. 



chap, vi.] EVENTS OF 1776. 191 

March of the Continental Army to New York. Trouble in North Carolina. 

for he knew that through the extensive influence of the numerous 
loyalists there, the city would be made a stronghold for the enemy, 
and a powerful leaven of defection for the whole province. He 
acccordingly prepared to march the main body of his army thither, 
after placing Boston in a state of defence, and leaving a garrison 
under the command of General Ward. He also wrote to Brigadier- 
General Lord Stirling, commanding at New York, to be vigilant, 
and to expect a reinforcement of five battalions and several compa- 
nies of artillery. Under the direction of Congress, General Lee 
was sent with a body of troops into that province, to seize the arms 
of all the loyalists, and place the city in a state of defence. Lee 
hastily raised a body of troops in Connecticut, and by forced marches, 
reached the city almost before the inhabitants were generally aware 
of the movement. They remonstrated, but he at once commenced 
erecting fortifications, and would soon have had the city well defend- 
ed, and all the royalists disarmed, had not the order for the latter 
measure been countermanded. Washington, with the bulk of the 
continental army, arrived in New York early in April. 

Howe, instead of going to New York, sailed eastward, and on the 
fifth of April, arrived safely at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the 
emigrants and troops were safely landed It was arranged that he 
should leave Halifax with his troops in time to be at New York in 
June, where he was to be joined by Sir Henry Clinton and his troops 
from the south. 

Before the events just recorded took place in Boston, North Caro- 
lina was the theatre of considerable tumult. Governor Martin, who 
had taken refuge on board an armed vessel, was busy in planning 
schemes to retrieve the royal cause. He contrived to collect a body 
of Highlanders, lately emigrated to America, and with a large num- 
ber of rough backwoodsmen, formed quite a formidable force, who 
were placed under the command of Colonels McDonald and McLeod. 
They set up the royal standard and summoned all men to repair to it. 
These bold movements in the midst of so much defection, were made 
on the strength of a promise of aid from regular troops under Clin- 
ton, to be landed at Wilmington. But the promised assistance did 
not arrive, and these troops, in attempting to march to Wilmington, 
were surrounded by an insurgent force, and McLeod and most of the 
Highlanders were taken prisoners. 

On the third of May, Lord Cornwallis, with seven regiments 
destined to operate against the Carolinas, arrived on that coast in a 
squadron of transports convoyed by Admiral Sir Peter Parker ;* and 



They sailed from Cork, Ireland, on the twelfth of February. 
13 



192 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1776.* 

Arrivj] of British land anil naval forces at Charle>ton. Attack upon Fort Moultrie. 

almost at the same moment, General Clinton arrived at Cape Fear, 
and took command of the troops. Clinton was instructed to endeavor, 
by proclamations, to win the inhabitants back to allegiance, if possi- 
ble, without resorting to force of arms. He was also instructed, 
in case he found the royalists pretty numerous and determined, 
t© leave some troops with them, and with the rest to repair to New 
York, to join the commander-in-chief, General Howe. But he found 
that the capture of the Highlanders had greatly dispirited the loyal- 
ists ; and after remaining there inactive for some time, he and Parker 
agreed to exceed their instructions, and make a descent upon Charles- 
ton, the capital of South Carolina. 

The fleet arrived off Charleston on the fourth of June, but through 
an intercepted letter, the inhabitants had been made acquainted with 
the design, and greatly strengthened the defences. The entrance to 
Charleston is through a narrow channel between Long Island and 
Sullivan's Island. Upon the latter was a fort,* lately erected, which 
completely commanded the entrance, and presented a formidable 
obstacle in the way of an attack upon the city. Besides this, the 
city and the fort were garrisoned by nearly six thousand provincials, 
under General Lee. This vigilant officer had been watching the 
movements of Clinton for months, and had followed him from pro- 
vince to province, while on his expeditions among the royalists. 

General Clinton, with his troops, landed upon Long Island, and 
erected two batteries, chiefly for the purpose of covering his forces 
when they should land upon Sullivan's Island to attack the fort. At 
half-past ten in the morning of the twenty-eighth of June, Sir Peter 
Parker gave the signal for action, and his ships immediately came 
to anchor, with springs upon their cables, directly in front of the fort.t 
Unacquainted with the soundings, three of his frigates soon got 
aground. Two of them hove off, but the third (the Acteon) could not 
be moved. At the same time, the batteries upon Long Island opened 
upon the fort, and all the light infantry and grenadiers embarked for 
Sullivan's Island in armed boats in the rear of some floating batteries. 
They were, however, immediately recalled and ordered back to their 
encampment, leaving the ships to continue their fire upon the fort, 
which was briskly returned by the Americans. The firing upon 
both sides, with scarcely an intermission, was kept up until nearly 
ten o'clock at night. The fire from the fort did terrible execution ; 
the ships were nearly disabled ; several of the chief officers were 

* Named, as a compliment to its gallant defender, Fort Moultrie. 

| His fleet consisted of the Bristol, of fifty guns, Experiment, of fifty guns, and 
the Active, Soleby, Acteon, Syren, and Sphynx, twenty-eight gun frigates ; the 
Thunderer, bomb, and the Friendship, an armed ship of twenty-four guns 



ckap. vi.] EVENTS OF 1776. 193 

Defeat of the British and burning of the " Acteon." Brivery of Sergeant Jasper. 

killed or wounded, and at one lime Commodore Parker was 
alone upon deck. Finally, in a dreadfully shattered state, the 
fleet moved off, having lost about two hundred men, among whom 
was Lord William Campbell, Governor of South Carolina, and 
other officers of rank. The Americans had only thirty-five killed 
and wounded. 

The next morning preparations were made for a second attack, and 
the land troops of Clinton, so anxiously looked for by the seamen on 
the preceding day, to attack and dislodge Lee from behind the fort, 
were again embarked, but, as before, at once ordered back, and no 
further attempt was made. The Acteon frigate, that still remained 
aground, was set fire to by order of the commander, and burned to 
the water's edge, to prevent its falling into the hands of the Ameri- 
cans. On the twenty-first, Clinton and the troops set sail, under 
convoy of the Soleby frigate, to join Howe at New York. 

This success of the Americans in repulsing the British fleet, 
greatly strengthened their cause at the south, and the loyalists rapidly 
decreased in numbers. Colonel Moultrie, who commanded the fort,* 
was universally applauded for his skill and bravery, and all concerned 
in the defence of Charleston received the grateful thanks of the 
Colonists.! 

All thoughts of reconciliation being banished from the minds of 
Americans, it seemed to be the dictate of true wisdom, as well as 
sound policy, to declare to the world in unequivocal terms, their 
solemn intentions concerning the then teeming present, and the 
future. Abject submission, or complete independence, formed the 
alternative, and of course the Colonists chose the latter. While 
from the beginning of serious discontents more than ten years before, 
some of the leading minds of America had conceived the feasibility 
and the necessity of political independence, yet down to the year 
1775, this idea was not generally prevalent or popular among the 
great mass of the American people. t They were strongly attached 

* The fort itself received but little injury, being constructed of the palmetto, 
whose soft fibre received the balls of the enemy without material effect. 

t Sergeant Jasper, on seeing the staff of the American flag cut by a ball, sprang 
after it to the ground, fastened it to the rammer of a cannon, mounted the parapet, 
and in the face of the hot fire of the enemy, hoisted it anew. Rutledge, the Presi- 
dent of the Colony, presented him with a sword. 

% The following extract from the writings of Dr. Timothy Dwight, for many years 
President of Yale College, in Connecticut, is corroborative of this assertion. He 
was a tutor in that institution in 1775, and afterwards a chaplain in the army, 
attached to Putnam's division. " In the month of July, 1775, I urged, in conversa- 
tion with several gentlemen of great respectability, firm whigs, and my intimate 
friends, the importance, and even the necessity, of a declaration of independence 



194 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1776. 



Prophetic address of Doctor Timothy Dwight. 



to the mother country, and not sufficiently disenthralled from the 
sectional jealousies which had obtained between widely-separated 
Colonies, to make an independence which must have the union of 
all for a basis, greatly to be desired. But the course of events had 
been such that there was hardly a choice left them. The separate 
action of the various Colonies in their opposition to British authority, 
had been so signally enstamped with the impress of concordance 
and concert, that the British ministry plainly perceived a strong 
union, before the provinces had taken a single step towards such a 
consummation. But the affairs at Lexington and Concord, Ticon- 
deroga and Breed's Hill, with a facile plastic hand, moulded public 
opinion in favor of Union and Independence. Popular assemblies, 
like that at Mecklenburg, began to utter aspirations for an entire 
severance from British rule ; and the press, with its thousand 

on the part of the Colonies, and alleged for this measure, the very same arguments 
which afterwards were generally considered as decisive ; but found them disposed 
to give me and my arguments, a hostile and contemptuous, instead of a cordial, 
reception. Yet, at this time, all the resentment and enthusiasm awakened by the 
odious measures of Parliament, by the peculiarly obnoxious conduct of the British 
agents in this country, and by the recent battles of Lexington and Breed's Hill, were at 
the highest pitch. These gentlemen may be considered as representatives of the 
great body of the thinking men in this country. A few may, perhaps, be ex- 
cepted, but none of these durst at that time openly declare their opinions to the 
public. For myself, I regarded the die as cast, and the hopes of reconciliation 
as vanished ; and believed that the Colonists would never be able to defend them- 
selves unless they renounced their dependence on Great Britain." — Dwight's Tra- 
vels in JVew England, vol. i., p. 159. 

We cannot forbear, in this place, making one or two extracts from a Valedictory 
Address delivered by this profound thinker, to a class in Yale College, in Septem- 
ber, 1775. After speaking of the natural advantages and political progress of 
America, he says : — " In the next place, I beg leave to remark, that this empire is 
commencing at a period when every species of knowledge, natural and moral, is 
arrived to a state of perfection, which the world before never saw. Other king- 
doms have had their foundations laid in ignorance, superstition and barbarity. 
Their constitutions were the offspring of necessity, prejudice, and folly. Even the 
boasted British constitution is but an uncouth Gothic pile, covered and adorned by 
the elegance of modern architecture. The entailments of estates, the multitude of 
their sanguinary laws, the inequality of their elections, with many other articles, 
are gross traces of ancient folly and savageness. American empire is designed for 
more illustrious scenes, and its birth attended with more favorable circumstances. 
Mankind have, in a great degree, learned to despise the shackles of custom and the 
chains of authority, and claim the privilege of thinking for themselves. Every 
science is handled with candor, fairness, and manliness of reasoning, of which no 
other age ever could boast. At this period our existence begins ; and from these 
advantages, what improvements may not be expected !" 

He took a brief survey of the idle, ignorant, and besotted character of the people 
of Mexico, and then uttered this prophetic sentence : — " This concise but very just 
account of them must necessarily convince us, that the moment our interest de- 
mands it, these extensive regions will be ours ; that the present race of inhabitants 
will either be exterminated, or revive to the native human dignity by the generous 
and beneficent influence of just laws and rational freedom " 



chap, vi.] EVENTS OP 1776. 



195 



Action by Congress in favor of Independence. Appointment of a Committee to prepare a Declaration. 

tongues, spake forth the mighty truth that " all men are created free 
and equal," and that the governor and the governed have alike rights 
inalienable.* ° 

When, in the spring of 1776, intelligence was received of the 
declaration of the King and Parliament, that the Americans were 
rebels, and that preparations were in progress for sending a large 
army of mercenary troops here to enslave them, the Colonists felt 
impelled, by necessity, to adopt decided measures, and agree upon 
united action in establishing and vindicating a national character. 
Congress, therefore, by a unanimous vote resolved : " That 
it be recommended to the respective assemblies and conven- " May '°" 
tions of the United Colonies, where no government sufficient to the 
exigencies of their affairs hath been hitherto established, to adopt such 
government as shall, in the opinion of the representatives of the 
people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents 
in particular, and America in general."! 

Meanwhile the convention of North Carolina b empowered b A P riI 22 - 
their delegates to join with others in establishing independence. 
That of Virginia went a step further, and instructed theirs to propose 
it ; and the people of Boston expressed their willing concurrence. 
Thus instructed, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, offered 
a resolution in Congress/ declaring " That the United Colo- c June7, 
nies are, and ought to be, free and independent States ;— that they 
are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown ;— and that 
all political connexion between them and the State of Great Britain 
is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." 

This bold proposition to dismember the British empire and to 
give birth to a new nation, was received by Congress with 
great anxiety and not a little opposition. For two days d the *f»g 
debate upon it was very warm, and elicited all the eloquence 
and ability of that august body ; and finally, having been adopted by 
a bare majority, the further consideration of the subject was post- 
poned until the first of July. Virginia and six other Colonies had 
spoken out in favor of Independence ; but six others, New York 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Caroli- 
na, were silent, and it was deemed expedient to delay the matter 
awhile. Meanwhile, a committee was appointed by Congress}: and 
instructed to prepare a Declaration, in accordance with the spirit 

* In January of this year, appeared the famous political pamphlet written by Tho- 
mas Pame, entitled « Common Sense." It is an able production, and it had a pow- 
erful influence in giving a bias to the popular mind in favor of independence. 

t Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. ii., p. 106 

X Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Rob- 
eit k. .Livingston. 



196 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 

Adoption and signing of the Declaration. Its reception by the people 

of the resolution. They reported a draft on the twenty-eighth of 
June,* which was laid on the table till the first of July. On that 
clay, in Committee of the Whole, nine States voted for independence. 
The Assemblies of Pennsylvania and Maryland refused their con- 
currence ; but conventions of the people having been called, majori- 
ties were at length obtained, and on the fourth of July, votes from 
all the Colonies were procured in its favor. By this act, the thirteen 
United Colonies declared themselves " free and independent States,'' 
having " full powers to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, 
establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which inde- 
pendent States may of right do." And in the support of that decla- 
ration, and expressing a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Pro- 
vidence, they mutually pledged to each other their " lives, their 
fortunes, and their sacred honor."! From that day the word Colony 
is not known in our history 4 It was signed on the second of August, 
by all the Members of Congress then present, and by some who 
were absent on the fourth of July, the day of its adoption. The 
number who signed it was fifty-six. $ 

There were many considerations of great weight attached to 
the act of signing that instrument, by which a mighty empire was 
dismembered, and a new nation came into being and took its place 
among the political families of the earth. It was treason against the 
home government, yet perfect allegiance to the law of right ; it 
subjected those who signed it to the danger of an ignominious death, 
and it entitled them to the profound reverence of a disenthralled 
people. It commenced the experiment of self-government, attempts 
at which had before been made, succeeded by decided failures. In 
view of the dark side of the picture, it required great firmness and 
decision of character. These were not wanting, as the signatures 
well attest. All are written with a firm hand, except that of Stephen 
Hopkins, an aged man afflicted with the palsy. || 

The Declaration was everywhere received with demonstrations of 
approbation. Processions were formed; cannons were fired ; bells were 
rung ; orations were pronounced, and everything which delight could 
suggest, was exhibited. In New York, during the celebration of the 

* It was written by Thomas Jefferson. 

t See Appendix, Note VI. 

I On the ninth of September, Congress adopted the following resolution : " That 
in all Continental commissions where heretofore the words ' United Colonies' 1 have 
been used, the style be altered for the future to the ' United States.' About this 
time the red ground of the American flag was altered to thirteen blue and white 
stripes, as an emblem of the thirteen Colonies united in a war for liberty. 

§ Pitkin, vol. ii., p. 34G ; Goodrich, p. 171 ; Marshall, vol. ii., p. 468. 

|| See Appendix, Note VI. 




its of the "Independence Committee :" from Trumbull's Picture of the Sig-n« 
of the handwriting of the original draft. — View of Independence Hall 
as it appeared in 1776. P. Ifl8. 



chap, vi.] EVENTS OF 1776. 199 

Destruction of the Statue of George III. Conduct of the Tories- 

event, the statue of George III. in Bowling-green was pulled down, 
and, its composition being lead, it was cast into bullets. A copy of 
the Declaration was received by Washington on the ninth of July, 
and at six o'clock that evening the regiments of his army were 
paraded, and the document was read aloud in the hearing of them 
all. It was greeted with the most hearty demonstrations of joy and 
applause.* 

After this declaration of independence and positive war, a large 
party of Americans remained attached to the royal cause, and by 
internal operations did more to retard the progress of the States 
towards the position of real and acknowledged independence, than 
all the fleets and armies of Britain. To a great extent, particularly 
at the south, these lories or royalists maintained a sort of conserva- 
tive character, and abounded principally among the landed proprie- 
tors. They felt none of the oppressions which commercial restric- 
tions laid upon the inhabitants of cities and sea-ports, and they were 
content to have things as they were. They condemned the Revolu- 
tionists and refused to take up arms against them for precisely the 
same reasons — for their opinions and conduct ; they did not wish to 
exchange their peaceful labors for the hardships of the field, and 
hence when the British commander counted upon these domestic 
allies, they refused to serve. In New York, New Jersey, and Penn- 
sylvania, the Crown found numerous supporters, and it has even 
been asserted, that among the agricultural population, these formed 
a numerical majority, and acts against the patriots which they dared 
not commit openly, were diligently performed in secret.f 

General Howe with his Boston army, left Halifax in 
June,' 1 and came to anchor off Sandy Hook on the twenty- 
fifth, and on the second of July took possession of Staten Island. 
He there expected to meet his brother, Admiral Lord Howe,| with 

* Sparks's Life of Washington (l vol.), p. 169. 

t In New York, a deep plot, originating with Governor Tryon, still on ship-board 
in the harbor, was defeated by a timely and fortunate discovery. The agents of the 
Governor were found enlisting men in the American camp and enticing them by 
offers of reward, to seize General Washington and convey him to the enemy. The 
infection spread to a considerable extent, and even reached the General's guard, 
several of whom enlisted. A soldier of the guard was proved guilty by a court- 
martial, and executed, and the plot was broken up. — Sparks (1 vol.), p. 169. 

X Lord Howe came in the capacity of a commissioner, authorized to offer to the 
Americans terms of accommodation, before commencing hostilities. He was a man 
greatly esteemed for his many virtues and humane disposition. In Parliament, a few 
nights before he left for America, he said, with much feeling, and deprecatory of 
the plan of hiring mercenaries to slaughter the Americans : — " I know no struggle 
so painful as that between a soldier's duties as an officer and as a man. If left to 
my own will, I should decline serving; but if commanded, it becomes my duty, 
and I shall not refuse." — Pic. His. of the Reign of Geo. III., vol. i., p. 24S. 



200 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1776. 

Arrival of the British fleet and army at New York. Lord Howe's circular letters. 

the main body of the fleet, destined to operate against the Americans, 
and conveying the new army of English and Hessian troops. He 
was to be joined also by the squadron of Sir Peter Parker, and the 
forces of General Clinton. But none of these parties were there, 
and it was the twelfth of July before Lord Howe arrived, about 
which time Clinton also joined them from the south. Their united 
forces amounted to about twenty-four thousand fighting men, the best 
troops of Europe, which, with others expected soon to arrive, made 
the number with which the Americans were threatened, about thirty- 
five thousand men. The design of the British was to seize New 
York with a force sufficient to keep possession of the Hudson River, 
open a communication with Canada, separate the Eastern from the 
Middle States, and then make an easy conquest of the surrounding 
country. 

Whilst General Howe was awaiting the arrival of his brother, he 
sent two ships, one of forty, and the other of twenty guns, up the 
Hudson River, preparatory to the execution of his ulterior designs. 
They sailed up to the Tappan Zee, a broad expansion of the river 
about thirty miles from the city, where they remained safe from 
annoyance from the shore. 

Washington, in the meanwhile, was making vigorous efforts for 
defence.* Not being positive whence he might first be attacked, 
and suspecting it might be from Canada, he strengthened all the 
approaches to the city of New York. The vicinage of the British 
troops on Staten Island to Long Island, made him anticipate a landing 
there, and he prepared for its defence also. He formed strong lines 
at Brooklyn, and fortified the heights which command the harbor of 

New York. 

The American army consisted of about twenty-seven thousand men, 
but so many were invalids and unprovided with arms, that Washington 
had but little more than seventeen thousand effective soldiers. 

Before proceeding to hostilities, Lord Howe sent ashore circular 
letters, acquainting the Americans with his delegated discretionary 
powers, both civil and military, giving him authority to grant pardons 
to all such as were willing to return to duty and allegiance to the 
British crown, and declaring that any province or town that should 
accept of the terms of accommodation should be immediately relieved 
of the operation of the restrictive commercial acts of Parliament. 
He also offered rewards to those who should aid and assist in restor- 
ing order and tranquillity. 

* He erected a fort on the north part of York Island, which was named Fort 
Washington, and another on the Jersey shore, nearly opposite, first called Fort 
Ccns'itution and afterwards, Fort Lee. 



chap, vi.] EVENTS OF 1776. 201 

Howe's letters to Washington. Landing of the British on Long Island. 

These papers Washington instantly forwarded to Congress, and 
their contents were speedily circulated in the newspapers, throughout 
every Colony, accompanied by comments indicative of indignation 
and disdain. Howe then despatched Adjutant-General Pa- 
terson a to New York, with letters addressed to Washington, 
offering terms of accommodation.* Not recognising as legal the 
rank Washington held, he superscribed his letters " To George 
Washington, Esq."t These letters, thus directed, Washington very 
properly refused to receive, stating as a reason, that, whoever had 
written them, they did not express his public station ; and that he could 
not, as a private individual, hold intercourse or communication with 
the enemies of his country.:}: Colonel Paterson assured Washington 
that no personal disrespect was intended, and stated that the Howes 
were commissioned by the King, with the very best intentions, to 
offer terms of accommodation. But Washington replied that they 
were only empowered to grant pardons, which the Americans did 
not stand in need of, and thus the conference ended. 

Finding it impossible to make the olive branch, so disfigured by 
parasites of royal growth, acceptable to the Americans, the British 
general resolved to draw the sword at once. Accordingly, on the 
twenty-second of August, Howe put his troops in motion on Staten 
Island, and threw forward a division of four thousand men under 
General Clinton, who landed upon the southern shore of Long Island, 
near the villages of New Utrecht and Gravesend. Their landing 
being well covered by three frigates and two bombs, it was effected 
without opposition. This division was soon followed by the rest of 
the army, and having divided into three columns, they commenced, 
their march towards the American camp at Brooklyn, then under the 
command of General Putnam. 

About this time the convention of New York called out the militia 
of four counties, who, to the number of three thousand, assembled 
at King's Bridge, under the command of General George Clinton. 
Three thousand also came from Connecticut. Two battalions of 
riflemen from Pennsylvania, one from Maryland, and a regiment from 
Delaware, also joined the army, while Washington constantly sent 

* Howe had authority to " grant pardons to such as deserved mercy." The Ame- 
ricans assured his lordship that having committed no fault in opposing the tyrannies 
of Britain, they therefore needed no pardon. 

] This was the second time that he had thus addressed letters to Washington. 

J In a resolution approving of this course of the Commander-in-chief, Congress 
directed that " no letter or message should be received on any occasion whatever 
from the enemy, by the Commander-in-chief or any other officer of the American 
army, but such as shall be directed to them in the character they respectively sus 
tain, and with their military rank." 



202 THE WAR Of INDEPENDENCE. [1776. 

Landing of the British troops. Attack upon the American lines- 

reinforcements to Putnam, Sullivan, and Brigadier-General Lord 
Stirling, who were in command of the Americans on Long Island.* 

A range of hills, covered with thick wood, running from the Nar- 
rows to Jamaica, separated the two armies. The position of the 
Americans was well secured on the land side by redoubts and en- 
trenchments, running along from Wallabout Bay to Gowanus Cove. 
They were defended on the water side by batteries at Red Hook, 
Governor's Island, and other points. The British army occupied the 
plain extending from the Narrows to Flatbush. General Grant com- 
manded the left wing near the coast ; De Heister, with the Hessian 
troops, the centre, and Sir Henry Clinton the right. 

About three o'clock in the morning, on the twenty-seventh of 
August, a report reached the Americans that the British were in 
motion on the road leading along the coast from the Narrows. A 
detachment under Lord Stirling was immediately ordered out to 
meet them. General Sullivan was sent to the heights just above 
Flatbush, where there was only one regiment, and a little to the 
north of it, two others, on the Bedford road. Meantime, General 
Clinton, with Earls Percy and Cornwallis, led the right wing of the 
British army, by a circuit, into the Jamaica road, which was not 
guarded, and gained the rear of the American division under Sulli- 
van. Before this was accomplished, reinforcements had been sent 
from the camp at New York, to support both Sullivan and Stirling. 
The attack was begun at an early hour, by Grant and De Heister, 
but with little spirit, for they were ordered not to advance till Clinton 
should reach the left flank or rear of the Americans. As soon as it 
was known by the sound of the guns that this was effected, they 
pushed vigorously forward, and the action became general and warm 
in every part. The troops under Lord Stirling fought with signal 
bravery, contesting every foot of ground against a greatly superior 
force, till Cornwallis, with a detachment from Clinton's division, 
came upon their rear, brought them between two fires, and compelled 
them to retreat within their lines across a creek and marsh near 
Gowanus Cove. General Sullivan, with the regiments on the heights 
above Flatbush, being attacked by De Heister on one side, and 
Clinton on the other, after making an obstinate resistance for three 
hours, was obliged to surrender. As the grounds were broken and 
covered with wood, the action in this part was conducted by skir- 
mishes, and many of the troops forced their way through the ene- 
my's line, and returned to Brooklyn. After the battle was over, 

* General Greene at first commanded on Long Island, but falling sick, he was, for 
a short time, succeeded by Sullivan, and at length, by Putnam. The number of 
Americans upon Long Island at that time was about twelve thousand. 



chap, ti.] EVENTS OF 1776. 203 

Defeat of the Americans. Their retreat across the East river. 

General Howe encamped his army in front of the American lines, 
intending to carry them by regular approaches, with the cooperation 
of his fleet.* 

It was a disastrous day for the Americans. They lost nearly 
twelve hundred men,f about a thousand of whom were captured. 
Generals Sullivan, Stirling, and Woodhull, were among the prison- 
ers. The loss of the British was less than four hundred. The whole 
number actively engaged was about five thousand Americans, and 
about fifteen thousand of the enemy .:{: The bravery of the American 
troops, particularly those under Lord Stirling, was highly commend- 
ed, and greatly astonished the disciplined Hessians, who had been 
taught to regard them as insubordinate and undisciplined cowards. 
During the action General Washington crossed over to Brooklyn. 
He is said to have witnessed the rout and slaughter of his troops 
with the keenest anguish, as it was impossible to detach others to 
their relief without exposing the camp to imminent danger. A heavy 
rain the next day kept the main body of the enemy in their tents, 
vet slight skirmishing near the lines took place. The probability 
that the ships of the fleet would sail into the East River with the 
first favorable wind, and thus cut off all communication between the 
camp and the forces at Brooklyn, rendered it hazardous in the ex- 
treme for the Americans to attempt longer to maintain that post. 
Besides, some of the ships had already passed round Long Island 
and were in Flushing Bay ; and it was expected that General Howe 
designed to transport a part of his army across the Sound, and form 
an encampment above King's Bridge,^ thus jeopardizing York Island, 
and requiring the aid of the troops at Brooklyn for its defence. 
These considerations determined Washington to call a council of 
war, and the result was a resolution to withdraw the troops from 
Brooklyn.! 

On the morning of the twenty-eighth, the enemv encamped in 
front of the American lines, designing to delay further action until 
they should obtain the cooperation of the fleet. Washington took 
advantage of this delay, and on the night of the twenty-ninth, having 
procured boats, he silently crossed the East River with all his troops, 
artillery, and stores, and landed them in safety in New York. This 
occupied several hours, and it was daylight before the last boat left 

* When the news of the battle of Long Island reached England, the Kin? 
(erred the honor of knighthood on General Howe, and he became Sir William Howe. 

f This is the number stated by Washington in his despatches to Congress. Gene- 
ral Howe stated the number to be three thousand three hundred. 

{ Goodrich. 

§ At the north end of York Island. 

|l Sparks's Life of Washington (1 vol.), pp. 177-9. 



204 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1776. 

Lord Howe's attempt at pacification. Committee of Conference appointed by Congress. 

Brooklyn ; but a dense fog so completely obscured them, and so 
silently had the retreat been performed, that the British, parties of 
whom were stationed within six hundred yards of the American lines, 
had no suspicions of their movement. To their utter astonishment, 
when the mist dispersed on the morning of the thirtieth, not an 
American was to be found at Brooklyn. This retreat, so well 
planned, and perfectly executed, has scarcely a parallel in history. 

It is said that so intense was the anxiety of Washington at that 
time, and so unceasing were his exertions, that for forty-eight hours 
he did not close his eyes, and rarely dismounted from his horse.* 

Immediately after this victory on Long Island, Lord Howe, as 
one of the King's pacificators, made another attempt at negotia- 
tion. He admitted General Sullivan to his parole, and sent him to 
Philadelphia with a verbal message to Congress, the purport of 
which was, that, although not authorized to treat with Congress, as 
such, it being an illegal assembly, yet he was desirous of conferring 
with some of its members as private gentlemen only, whom he 
would meet at any place they might appoint ; that, in conjunction 
with his brother, General Howe, he had full power to compromise 
the dispute between America and Great Britain ; that he desired to 
effect this before further hostilities should take place ; that, in case 
Congress should be disposed to treat, many things not yet asked 
for, might be granted ; and if, upon the conference, there should 
seem to be a good ground for accommodation, the authority of 
Congress might be acknowledged, and a definitive reconciliation 
effected. To this Congress sent a reply by Sullivan, that, being 
the representatives of free and independent States, they could not, 
with propriety, send any of their members to confer with his lordship 
in their private capacity ; nevertheless, they would send a committee 
to inquire into his authority to treat with persons authorized by Con- 
gress, and to hear such propositions as he should think proper to 
make. Instructions were sent to General Washington at the same 
time, that no propositions for peace ought to be received, unless 
directed in writing, to the representatives of the United States ; and 
to inform those who might make an application for a treaty, that 
Congress would cheerfully conclude a treaty of peace whenever such 
should be proposed to them as representatives of an independent 
people. 

Doctor Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge, were ap- 
pointed by Congress to confer with Lord Howe, whom they 
met for that purpose on Staten Island." f The interview 

* Marshall, vol. ii., p. 509; Howe's Narrative, pp. 1-.'). 

| The house in which this interview was held, is still standing. It is an ancient 



chap, vi.] EVENTS OF I7TG. 20.3 

Termination of liie Conference. Preparations to drive the Americans from New York < !ity. 

was distinguished by courtesy and good feeling on both sides. Lord 
Howe had nothing new to offer besides what had already been 
communicated to Congress through General Sullivan ; and, as he 
declined conferring with the committee except as private gentlemen, 
he being unauthorized to recognise Congress as a legal body, the 
conference terminated without effecting anything. The commission- 
ers absolutely refused to entertain any propositions, except they 
were made to them as the representatives of a free and independent 
people. Lord Howe expressed his distress because of the obligation 
now resting upon him to take severe measures against the Americans, 
whom he so kindly regarded. Doctor Franklin assured him that the 
Americans would endeavor to lessen, as much as possible, the pain 
he might feel on their account, by taking the utmost care of them- 
selves.* Thus ended the interview — war or absolute independence 
were the only alternatives the Americans chose to recognise. 

General Howe now took measures to drive the Americans out of 
the city of New York. He made preparations to have troops landed 
from the ships on opposite sides of the upper part of the Island, 
while the main body of the fleet entered the harbor and took a posi- 
tion nearly within cannon-shot of the city. By this arrangement the 
Americans would be hemmed in, and be obliged to evacuate the 
city, or suffer the privations and dangers of a siege from a far supe- 
rior force. 

Washington viewed these preparations with some alarm, for he 
saw no chance of coping successfully with such a body of thoroughly 
disciplined troops, and felt unwilling to jeopardize the safety 
of his army. He therefore called a council of war, a and 

looking stone edifice, situated near the water, on the extreme west end of Staten 
Island, and is known as the " Billop House." It was built upwards of a century 
ago, by Captain Billop, of the British Navy. He accepted a Colonel's commission 
when the Revolution broke out, and joined the army of Lord Howe when he took 
possession of Staten Island. 

* Franklin and Lord Howe were personal acquaintances, having been first intro- 
duced to each other at the house of a sister of his lordship, on Christmas day, 177 1. 
This lady had been made acquainted with Franklin for the purpose of ascertaining 
from him, if possible to do so, during social conversation, the real designs of Ame- 
rica, and the future plans of the Colonists. It was supposed that in the freedom of 
social intercourse with a lady and her family, the caution which so much distin- 
guished that statesman would be somewhat relaxed, and that inadvertently he might 
drop the secret. She and her brother flattered him, and pretended to take the part 
of the Americans, by condemning the conduct of ministers, and especially their 
petty spite as manifested in his dismissal by them from the office of Postmaster 
General. But Franklin was not to be cajoled, and lie had seen too much (»(i iiK- 
duplicity of partisans to give much credit for sincerity of sympathy coming &$ni 
such a quarter; and when their interview ended, Lord Howe and his sister we 
much in the dark respecting American affairs, as they we're before the i: traduction 



206 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1776. 

Evacuation of New York. Skirmishes near Harlem. 

recommended an immediate withdrawal of the troops. To this, 
however, many of the officers objected, and proposed leaving a gar- 
rison of five thousand men in the city, while the main body should 
occupy a strong fort at King's Bridge. But perceiving the British 
army slowly enclosing them on all sides, a total evacuation was 
determined on, and with great activity they commenced removing the 
artillery and stores far above, on the western shore of the Hudson. 
The Commander-in-chief retired to the Heights of Harlem, and a 
force of nine thousand men were stationed at Mount Washington, 
King's Bridge, and the smaller posts in the vicinity, while about five 
thousand remained in the vicinage of the city. The residue were 
placed between these extreme points, to act at either place as occa- 
sion might require.* 

On the morning of the fifteenth three ships of war ascended the 
Hudson as far as Bloomingdale, and at the same time, General Clin- 
ton, with a strong division of the British army, consisting of British 
and Hessians, landed at Kipp's Bay, on the East River, under the 
fire of two forty gun ships and three frigates, and attacked the 
American batteries erected there. Hearing the cannonading, Wash- 
ington left Harlem and hastened with all despatch to the place of 
landing, where, to his great mortification, he found the troops (eight 
regiments in all) retreating without firing a gun ; and also two 
brigades sent to their relief, flving in the greatest confusion. He 
endeavored to rally them, but in vain, and they continued their 
retreat until they reached the main body of the army at Harlem. 

The division in, or near the city, under the command of General 

Putnam, retreated with great difficulty, leaving behind them their 

heavy artillery and stores. Fifteen of the Americans were killed, 

and three hundred taken prisoners. The British entered 

the city without much loss, and took formal possession of it, a 

to the great joy of the tories ; but they had hardly become quiet 

* Washington was extremely anxious to know the intended future operations of 
the enemy, and, at the suggestion of Colonel Knowlton, he requested Captain 
Nathan Hale, who commanded a company of Connecticut militia, to go as a spy 
into the British camp, and learn as much as possible, what operations were in pre- 
paration. Hale was a young man just past his majority, and with all the ardor of 
youth, he undertook the dangerous enterprise. He had succeeded admirably, and 
started to return to camp, when he was recognised by a tory cousin of his, and at 
once arrested. The proof of his object was clear, and he frankly acknowledged it. 
Howe gave orders for him to be hung the next morning, which order was faithfully 
executed by the bloody Provost-marshal, in the most unfeeling manner. He was 
refused the attendance of a clergyman ; refused the use of a Bible for devotion ; and 
the letters which he wrote to his mother and other friends, on the morning of his 
execution, were destroyed, and the reason assigned was, " that the rebels should not 
know that they had a man in their army who could die with so much firmness !" 






chap. vi. J EVEx\ T TS OF 1776. 207 

Great Conflagration in New York. Passage of the British troops up the East River 

before a fire broke out," which raged until it destroyed Se ( 
about a third of the city.* 

Having organized a temporary government, General Howe left some 
troops in the city, and with the main body of his army, marched up 
York Island and encamped near the American lines, j with 
his front about a mile and a half from the Heights of Har- ep ' 
lem ; his right leaning on Horen's Hook, on the East River, his left 
on Bloomingdale, on the North River ; so that his line extended quite 
across the Island. On the sixteenth, a skirmish took place between 
advanced parties of both armies, in which the Americans gained a 
decided advantage, though with the loss of two gallant officers, 
Colonel Knowlton and Major Leitch. This event greatly revived 
the drooping spirits of the Americans. 

After spending about three weeks in fortifying the city, General 
Howe placed a larger part of his army into flat-boats and sent them 
up the East River, through the pass of Hell Gate,t to a point called 
Throg's Neck, at the lower extremity of Westchester, where 
they were landed. The Americans were there to receive 
them, and broke down the bridge that connected the little island with 
the main land. Howe accordingly reembarked his troops and landed 
higher up, at Pell's Point, and advanced upon New Rochelle. 
The object of this movement was, to gain the rear of the American 
army, and cut off their connexion with the Eastern States. At the 
same time, three frigates were despatched up the Hudson to inter- 
rupt the American communications with the New Jersey shore, 
where a considerable portion of their stores was secured. Wash- 
ington readily perceived the designs of the enemy, and at once 
withdrew all his troops from York Island, except a force of three 
thousand men under Colonel Magaw, in garrison at Fort Washing- 
ton, on the Hudson. 

Having crossed the Harlem River at King's Bridge, he extended 

* The origin of this conflagration is disputed. At the council of officers it was 
proposed to fire the city, rather than have it fall into the hands of the British ; jus- 
tifying the act by the fact that the largest proportion of the property belonged to 
tories. British writers charge the conflagration upon the American soldiers, and 
some even go so far as to assert that some of the incendiaries were caught, and put 
to the sword, or thrown into the flames. But this is not proven ; and the account 
given by Washington, and also by Gordon, is doubtless correct; that amid the 
rejoicings and revelry of the troops on their entry, the flames broke out in an obscure 
tavern in the most crowded quarter, and from the same circumstances they spread 
for some time unchecked. — Gordon, vol. ii., p. 331 ; Washington's Letters, vol. ii., 
p. 246. 

t Helle-gat was the name given by the Dutch to the whirlpool in the East River, 
nearly opposite the upper end of York Island. The latter. was purchased of the 
Indians in 1637, by Wouter Van Twiller, for a trifle. 

14 



208 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1776. 

Capture of Fort Washington by the British. Cornwallis's attack on Fort Lee. 

his line along the western bank of the Bronx River, towards White 
Plains, keeping his left constantly in advance of the right of the 
enemy. On the nineteenth and twentieth there was some skirmish- 
ing, and a sharp combat ensued at a narrow pass, which the Ameri- 
cans vainly attempted to defend. On the twenty-first, Washington 
occupied some heights near New Rochelle. On that day, Howe 
received a reinforcement of a fresh division of Hessians under 
(General Knvphausen, and part of a regiment of cavalry from Ireland.* 

On the twenty-second Washington fell back to White Plains, and 
on the twenty-eighth, a partial action was fought there which resulted 
in the repulse of the Americans, with some loss. During the night 
of the thirty-first, Washington retired to the heights of North Castle, 
about five miles north of White Plains, but Howe discontinued 
further pursuit, and directed his attention to the American posts on 
the Hudson, with a view of crossing the river and penetrating into 
New Jersey, thus changing the seat of war to a less defensible ter- 
ritory. His first step was to attack Fort Washington, on York 
Island. Colonel Magaw, the commander, was disposed to evacuate 
it and save the garrison ; but General Green, who commanded at 
Fort Lee, opposite, insisted that the garrison, if hard pushed, could, 
at any time, withdraw and cross the Hudson, and therefore advised 
resistance until the last moment. On the sixteenth of November 
Howe attacked Fort Washington with a large body of British and 
Hessians ; and Lord Percy having carried the advanced works, the 
garrison saw that longer resistance was vain, and laid down their 
arms. Washington had sent word to Colonel Magaw, that if he 
would hold out till evening, he should have reinforcements, but this 
he was unable to do. The whole garrison, consisting of nearly 
three thousand men, became prisoners of war. The British lost 
nearly a thousand men in this assault. 

Washington, in the meanwhile, having first secured the strong 
positions in the vicinity of the Croton River and at Peekskill, crossed 
the Hudson with the main portion of his army, and encamped at 
Hackensack, New Jersey, whence he reinforced General Green at 
Fort Lee. 

Immediately after the capture of Fort Washington, Lord Corn- 
„ wallis crossed the Hudson" at Dobb's Ferry, with six thou- 

o Nov. 16. . 

sand men, and attacked Fort Lee. The Americans, to save 
themselves, were obliged to make a hasty retreat, leaving behind 
them their cannon, tents, and stores, winch fell into the hands of the 
victors. The garrison joined the main army, and for three weeks the 

* The British force now amounted to about thirty-five thousand men; the Ame- 
ricans from eighteen to twenty thousand. 



chap, vi.] EVENTS OF 1776. 209 

Americans pursued by the British across New Jersey. Indecision of General Howe. 

Americans fled across the level country of New Jersey, before the 
pursuing enemy, at the end of which time, a bare remnant of it 
remained. The troops, dispirited by late reverses, left in large 
numbers as fast as their terms of enlistment expired, and returned 
to their homes, and by the last of November, the American army 
numbered scarcely three thousand troops, independent of a detach- 
ment left at White Plains under General Lee. The country was so 
level that it afforded no strong positions to fortify ; indeed, so neces- 
sarily rapid had been the retreat, that no time was allowed for pause 
to erect defences. Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, Trenton, 
and smaller places, successively fell into the hands of the enemy, 
and so hot was the pursuit that the rear of the Americans was often 
in sight of the van of the British. On the eighth of December 
Washington crossed the Delaware in boats, and Cornwallis arrived 
at Trenton just in time to see the last boat reach the Pennsylvania 
shore. The Delaware was the only barrier between the British 
army and Philadelphia, where Congress was in session ; and Howe 
apparently only awaited the freezing of the river to enable him to 
march over and capture that city. He arranged about four thousand 
troops along the river from Trenton to Burlington, and strong detach- 
ments occupied Princeton and New Brunswick. 

It appears from Howe's despatches,* that instead of pursuing the 
Americans further, he had formed a plan to divide the Eastern States 
from the others, and thus interrupt their necessary union in the 
warfare. He contemplated marching north to Albany, where 
he would meet Burgoyne from Canada, and thus form a connected 
barrier from New York to that province. But better counsels pre- 
vailed, and he yielded to the opinion of Cornwallis, that by possess- 
ing himself of Philadelphia, and retaining what he had in possession 
in New York and New Jersey, he could as completely separate the 
Eastern and Southern divisions of the States, and with far less dan- 
ger of failure. This " halting between two opinions" on the part 
of Howe, satisfactorily accounts for his not continuing the pursuit of 
Washington across the Delaware, and seizing Philadelphia. Such 
a course, it has been justly remarked, would have heightened the 
panic with which the late defeats and present flying retreat of their 
army, had struck the Americans. 

General Lee, whose great military abilities and skill none doubted, 
and in whom the country reposed great confidence, was left at White 
Plains in command of a detachment of the army. Washington 
wrote to him from Hackensack, requesting him to lead his division 

* Parliamentary Register, vol. xi., pp. 560-362. 



210 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1776. 

Capture of Major General Lee. A general conditional pardon offered to the Americana. 

into New Jersey. He did not heed the request ; and finally the 
Commander-in-chief gave him a positive order to that effect, which 
was often repeated. Lee gave various excuses for delay, and finally, 
when he did move, his marches were so slow that he was three 
weeks reaching Morristown. The secret of this tardiness and dis 
obedience probably was, that he hoped to make a successful descent 
upon New York, or execute some other brilliant feat, for he was as 
ambitious as he was impetuous and brave. But while on his march, 
he lodged one night near Baskingridge, about three miles from his 
camp, with a small guard, when a tory in the neighborhood gave 
notice of his position to the enemy, and early in the morn- 
ing' 1 a company of light-horse under Colonel Harcourt sur- 
rounded the house and took him prisoner.* The command of his 
division devolved on General Sullivan,! who marched it to the main 
army. Four regiments, under General Gates, soon after arrived from 
Ticonderoga. 

The general expectation that the British would cross the Delaware 

as soon as the ice should become sufficiently firm, and take 

possession of Philadelphia, caused Congress to adjourn to 

Baltimore. 6 General Putnam took the command of the 

militia in Philadelphia, and began to construct fortifications from the 

Delaware to the Schuylkill. 

About this time a joint proclamation of Lord Howe and General 
Howe was issued, offering pardon to all who should accept of it 
within sixty days, and take an oath of allegiance. So great was the 
panic and so dark the prospect, that great numbers accepted the 
proffered terms. The last day of the year was near at hand, when 
the terms of enlistment of many of the old troops would expire, and 
under the present gloomy pressure of events, Washington saw 
nothing ahead but the almost total dissolution of his army. 

c Dec. 20. ° J 

Still he was firm 4 He wrote to Congress a le1ter, c por- 
traying in strong colors the destitution and decrease of his army, 
and the stern necessity of taking measures to re-enlist those in the 
service, and induce others to join. He alluded, in pretty plain terms, 
to the tardiness of Congress, and justified his plainness by the exi- 

* The fact of his having tardily obeyed the orders of his commander, and his 
lodging at a private house so far from his army, awakened in the minds of many the 
suspicion that his capture was voluntary. But, as Sparks justly observes, there 
was no just ground for such a conclusion, for nothing ever proved him inconstant to 
the best interests of his adopted country. 

t Sullivan had recently been exchanged for a prisoner of similar rank in the 
hands of the Americans. 

\ When asked what he would do if Philadelphia should be taken, he replied :- 
" We will retreat beyond the Susquehanna River, and thence, if necessary, to the 
Alleghany Mountains." — Sparks (1 vol.), p. 200. 



chap, vi.] EVENTS OF 1776. 211 

Washington appointed Military Dictator. Crossing of the Delaware. 

gencies of the case. He concluded his letter by saying, " A charac- 
ter to lose, an estate to forfeit, the inestimable blessings of liberty at 
stake, and a life devoted, must be my excuse." 

This letter had due effect upon Congress, and, by a formal resolve, 
Washington was empowered to raise sixteen battalions in addition to 
eighty-eight already voted by that body, and they also empowered 
him " To order and direct all things relating to the department, and 
to the operations of war." This unlimited power in that sphere was 
conferred for six months — he was in fact made a Military Dictator. 
It was a fortunate event for America, and the wisdom of the measure 
was soon seen and felt. The increased pay of officers, the bounties 
offered, and the great personal influence of the Commander-in-chief, 
had the effect to retain in the service for a few weeks at least, more 
than one half of the old soldiers, and quite a large number of new 
recruits were speedily added, the enlistment service of whom was to 
extend, some for a limited period, and some during the war. By 
great exertions, he mustered between five and six thousand men, and 
then conceived the bold design of recrossing the Delaware, and 
attacking the enemy, then in complete possession of the Jerseys.* At 
Trenton were about fifteen hundred Hessians and a troop of British 
light-horse ; and smaller detachments were stationed at Bordentown, 
Burlington, Black Horse, and Mount Holly. 

Washington arranged to cross the river in three divisions. Gene- 
ral Cadwallader was to cross at Bristol, and march to Burlington ; 
General Ewing was to cross a little below Trenton, to intercept the 
retreat of the enemy in that direction ; while the Commander-in- 
chief, with twenty-four hundred men, was to cross nine miles above 
Trenton, to make the principal attack. But Generals Cadwallader 
and Ewing were unable to pass, on account of the floating ice. 
Washington alone succeeded. 

On the night of Christmas the bold expedition was undertaken. 
Owing to the great quantities of floating ice, the crossing was not 
accomplished until about three o'clock in the morning, at 

1 . - rra a Dec - 25, 

which time there was a considerable fall of snow. The 
troops were formed into two divisions, commanded by Generals 
Sullivan and Greene, under whom were Brigadier-Generals Stirling, 
Mercer, and St. Clair. Washington was with the division led by 
General Greene. 

About eight o'clock in the morning the enemy was attacked at two 

* Adolphus (an English writer) claims for Arnold the merit of conceiving this 
bold design. Upon what authority he hazards the assertion, does not appear, but 
there is not the least shadow of probability that such was the case, for Arnold was 
at that time with the northern division of the army, under General Schuyler. 



212 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1776. 

Battle of Trenton and capture of the Hessians. Seizure of Rhode Island by the British. 

points simultaneously, by these two divisions. The surprised Hes- 
sians, after a slight skirmish, attempted a retreat to Princeton, but 
were intercepted, and finding themselves hemmed in on all sides, 
were obliged to lay down their arms and surrender themselves 
prisoners of war. Between thirty and forty Hessians were killed, 
among whom was Colonel Rahl, the commanding officer. The 
Americans had ten killed and wounded. The number of prisoners 
v/as nearly one thousand, and the spoils consisted of six brass field- 
pieces, a thousand stand of arms, and considerable ammunition. As 
the enemy were still in his vicinity and superior to him in numbers, 
Washington deemed it. prudent to recross the Delaware into Penn- 
sylvania, with all his prisoners, on the same day, which was accom- 
plished at evening. The British and Hessian troops at Bordentown 
retreated to Princeton, and thus the whole line of the cantonments of 
the enemy was broken up. 

This brilliant and successful feat of arms greatly surprised the 
British commander, and inspired the Americans with renewed 
courage. Only a week before, General Howe was waiting for the 
freezing of the river to enable him to take quiet possession of Phila- 
delphia, and Lord Cornwallis, by permission, was about to sail for 
England. He was immediately ordered back to New Jersey with 
additional troops, and all the British forces assembled at Princeton, 
for the purpose of making an attack upon Washington, who had 
again crossed the Delaware and took post at Trenton, with a view 
of attacking the enemy at his general rendezvous. General Heath, 
stationed at Peekskill, on the Hudson, was ordered to join him with 
the main body of the New England forces ; and the militia from the 
surrounding country, flocked to his standard in considerable numbers. 
Upwards of three thousand Pennsylvania militia, under Generals 
Cadwallader and Mifflin, formed a junction with the main army on 
the thirtieth. 

On the day that Washington crossed the Delaware, the British 
took possession of Rhode Island. Admiral Sir Peter Parker and 
General Clinton, with four brigades of English and some Hessian 
troops, on board a numerous squadron, had commenced an expedi- 
tion along the New England coast, and this was their first prize. It 
w r as a loss of great importance to the Americans, yet it cost the 
British a great deal to retain possession of it. For three years, a 
large number of men were kept for its defence, in perfect idleness. 
The enemy also took possession of the islands Conanicut and Pru- 
dence, and for a long time kept the small American squadron, under 
Commodore Hopkins, blocked up in Providence River. 

Meanwhile, the small American force on the borders of Lakes 



chap, vi.] EVENTS OF 1776. 215 

Operations upon Lake Champlain. Naval battle 

Champlain and George, were not idle. General Schuyler had com- 
mand of the whole northern division of the army, assisted by 
Adjutant-General Gates, who, in June, was made a Brigadier-Gene- 
ral, and appointed to the command of the forces in Canada. Con- 
gress also voted Gates a reinforcement of six thousand men, and 
with these he was to attempt in Canada to retrieve the severe 
losses of the previous year. 

It was deemed necessary to maintain the command of the lakes. 
The Americans had fifteen small vessels upon the two lakes, while 
the British had not a single boat. The vessels of the former carried, 
in all, ninety-six guns, fourteen of which were eighteen-pounders, 
twenty-three twelves, and the rest six and four-pounders. This 
squadron was placed under the command of the intrepid Arnold, 
who, at the beginning of the year, had been appointed by Congress 
a Brigadier-General. With it he effectually commanded the lakes 
and the military posts upon their shores, and prevented a desired 
union of the British forces in Canada with those at New York and 
its vicinity. Governor Carleton having received intelligence of the 
contemplated expedition of Gates, perceived the necessity of taking 
active measures to secure the command of the lakes and the im- 
portant posts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. He immediately 
sent about seven hundred men from Quebec to construct a fleet, and, 
as if by the wand of magic, a force sufficient to sweep the lakes 
was put in motion in the course of a few weeks.* 

On the eleventh of October, Arnold arranged his squadron in a 
line across the passage between the Isle Vallicour and the western 
shore of the lake, and soon after, the battle was opened by the " Car- 
leton" attacking the American line. The engagement continued four 
hours, and the wind was so unfavorable that the other vessels of the 
English fleet could not aid the Carleton. More than half of her 
crew were killed and wounded. The Americans lost their largest 
brig by fire, and considering it dangerous to await a second engage- 
ment at that time, Arnold sailed with his vessels towards Crown 
Point. The English at once pursued them, and overtaking them 
before they reached their place of destination, another severe engage- 

* They consisted of the " Inflexible," of three hundred tons burden (launched, 
rigged, and equipped for service, in twenty-eight days), carrying eighteen 
twelve pounders ; two schooners, the " Maria," and the " Carleton ;" the " Loyal 
Convert," a gondola; the "Thunderer," a kind of flat-bottomed craft, carrying 
twelve heavy guns, and two howitzers; and twenty-four boats, armed each with a 
field-piece, or carriage-gun. Captain Pringle was Commodore, and the " Inflexi- 
ble" his flag-ship. Among the young officers of the " Carleton" was Edward Pel- 
lew, afterwards Admiral Viscount Exmouth, one of the most distinguished of 
English naval commanders. — Pic. His. of the Reign of Geo. III., vol. i., p. 479. 



216 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1776. 

Indians on the Southern frontier. Commissioners sent by Congress to France. 

ment took place. Perceiving it probable that his vessels would fall 
into the hands of the enemy, Arnold ran them ashore and set fire to 
them. The American forces then withdrew from Crown Point to 
Ticonderoga ; but General Carleton, instead of following up his 
success and capturing the latter fortress, as he probably could have 
done, put his forces into winter-quarters at Isle Aux Noix, and 
returned to Quebec* General Schuyler having sufficiently garri- 
soned the fort, retired to Albany, while Gates, as we have seen, 
joined Washington upon the banks of the Delaware. 

During the spring, English agents were busy among the Creek, 
Cherokee, and Chickasaw Indians, inciting them, by promises of 
ample plunder, not only to join the royal standard against the Ameri- 
cans, but to attack the defenceless inhabitants of the frontiers of 
Virginia and the Carolinas, hoping thereby to weaken the American 
army by the necessary employment of large numbers of the militia 
in the protection of those regions. Too well they succeeded in their 
atrocious mission, and hundreds of innocent old men, women, and 
children, were butchered m cold blood ! 

While these various belligerent events were in progress, Congress 
was assiduously engaged in strengthening the military arm, and in 
forming a general provisional government, legislative and executive, 
with properly-defined powers, upon a basis that should promise per- 
manency and efficiency. They also took advantage of the hostile 
feelings of France, Spain, and Holland, towards Great Britain ; and 
directed their attention towards them for aid. In the early part of 
this year, Silas Deane was sent by Congress as a sort of American 
Agent, to reside near the Court of France. He performed his 
assigned duties with eminent success ; and during the summer, found 
means to obtain from the royal arsenals and other places, fifteen 
thousand muskets, which he sent to America. He also obtained 
men and money, and abundant serious promises of future aid. 

After the Declaration of Independence, Congress thought it expe- 
dient to send men possessing greater authority, and accordingly they 
appointed an embassy to the Court of France," consisting 
of Doctor Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Silas Deane. 
Jefferson excused himself, and Arthur Lee was appointed in his 
place. He and Franklin reached Paris on the thirteenth of Decem- 
ber, and at once entered industriously upon the execution of their 
commission. 

* During the stay of Carleton at Crown Point (where he remained till the third 
of November), young Pellew came very near capturing Arnold. Having ventured 
upon the lake in a boat, he was observed and chased so closely by the midshipman, 
that, when he reached the shore and ran off, he left his stock and buckle in the 
boat behind him.— Ostler, Life of Admiral Viscount Exmouth. 



CHAP. VI.] 



EVENTS OF 1776. 



217 



Articles of Confederation proposed. 



As early as July, 1775, Doctor Franklin submitted to Congress a 
sketch of Articles of Confederation between the Colonies, to con- 
tinue until their reconciliation with Great Britain, and in failure of 
that event, to be perpetual. On the twelfth of June, 1776, a 
committee consisting of one from each Colony, was appointed 
to prepare and digest a form of confederation, but their report 
was laid aside, a and not resumed till April, 1777. Yet 

' l ' a Aug. 20. 

the cause in which the thirteen States were engaged, 
and the fearful issues at stake, in which all were equally inte- 
rested, formed a sufficient bond of union to bind them all in a 
close tie of affiliation, and Congress found but little impediment 
in the exercise of its powers, from the jealousies arising from the 
assumption of State rights. Like Minerva, starting, full-armed, 
from the brain of Jove, Congress was the spontaneous offspring of 
the great patriot, heart of America, and found itself, by general will, 
possessed of unrestricted powers. And these powers, at the close 
of 1776, so far as military operations were concerned, were delegated 
to Washington, on whom all eyes were bent, all hopes reposed. It 
was a gloomy hour for America, and clouds and darkness were 
gathering thick on every hand. Yet that immortal man stood up 
amidst these despondences, like a firm tower of strength, and, lean- 
ing upon the arm of that Providence which had so signally protected 
him in times past, he felt confident of success, for he knew the 
cause was a righteous one. He saw sunny spots in the future, and 
his day visions were all pictures of glory and happiness near at hand 
for his bleeding country. 




Tha " Billop House " — Staten Island. 



EVENTS OF 1777. 




General Philip Schuyler— Lieutenant-General J. Burgoyne— General Horatio Gates. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ENERALS Mifflin and Cadwallader, with 
the forces at Bordentown and Crosswicks, 
joined the division under Washington at 
Trenton, on the night of the first of Janu- 
ary. The whole effective American force 
did not then exceed five thousand men. 
Cornwallis was at Princeton, and mustering 
all his army, advanced a large detachment 
against Washington on the afternoon of the next day.* The a Jan 2 
Americans immediately withdrew to the opposite side of the 
Assumpinck Creek, which runs through the town, and commenced 




220 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 

Battle of Princeton. 

throwing up entrenchments preparatory to a battle. The enemy 
attempted to cross in several places. During the whole afternoon a 
considerable skirmishing took place, and just at nightfall there was 
some cannonading. Finding the fords well guarded, the British 
General considered it prudent to wait for reinforcements, which were 
in the vicinity, and deferred an attack upon Washington's lines until 
the next day. 

The strong force of the enemy, and his great facility for rein- 
forcements, convinced Washington that a battle would be very 
hazardous. The Delaware was so full of floating ice, that if he 
should be repulsed, it would be almost impossible for him to retreat 
across the river, and the total destruction of his little army would 
be the inevitable result. Influenced by these considerations, he 
conceived another bold design, and promptly put it into execution. 
During the dark night of the second of January, while the enemy were 
in repose, he silently withdrew his army from Trenton, leaving a 
few men at work with pickaxes, and the camp fires kindled, for the 
purpose of deceiving the British sentinels into the belief that the 
Americans were busily engaged in throwing up their entrenchments. 
Just before dawn, these men left their work and hastened to the 
army, then on, a rapid march towards Princeton with the design of 
attacking and defeating the force left there by Cornwallis, and then 
to proceed to New Brunswick, the chief depot of the enenry, and 
seize the military stores deposited there. But two British regiments 
were on their march to join Cornwallis at Trenton, and met Wash- 
ington a mile and a half from Princeton. It was a very foggy morn- 
ing, and at first the enemy mistook the Americans for Hessians. 
The mistake was soon discovered, and a hot skirmish ensued. The 
commander of the British troops sent to Princeton for the other 
regiment, which was soon on the spot, and after a battle of more 
than an hour, the American militia wheeled and fell back in great 
confusion. General Mercer, in attempting to rally them, was mor- 
tally wounded. Washington, perceiving the rout of the vanguard, 
and feeling that all hopes for the salvation of the army now depended 
upon restoring order, pushed forward at the head of his division, 
rallied the flying troops, separated the enemy, and obliged them to 
retreat in various directions. The English lost in killed and prison- 
ers, about four hundred men, and the slain of the Americans was about 
one hundred. The brave General Mercer was universally beloved 
by the army and highly esteemed by Washington, and therefore his 
loss was greatly deplored. 

At break of day" Cornwallis, to his great astonishment, 
perceived that the Americans had deserted their camp, and 



chap, vii.] EVENTS OF 1777. 221 

American Encampment at Watertown. Outrages committed by the Hessians. 

,\t once penetrating their designs upon Brunswick, sped hastily to 
that place, to protect his stores. His van reached Princeton about 
the same time that the American rearguard did, and Washington 
found himself again in a perilous situation, for his men were com- 
pletely exhausted.* He at once made the prudent resolve to retreat 
towards the northern and mountainous part of New Jersey, and 
finally halted at Morristown and established his head-quarters there, 
where he could find shelter and repose for his little army. Corn- 
vvallis probably deemed it unwise to pursue the Americans, and 
therefore pushed on to New Brunswick, where he found General 
Mathews busily engaged in removing the baggage and warlike stores. 

Meanwhile, Washington, having given his army some rest, entered 
the field again in an offensive attitude, and in a short time overran 
the whole country from there to the Raritan. He even crossed that 
river and took possession of Newark, Elizabethtown, and Wood- 
bridge, and thus commanded the whole coast in front of Staten 
Island. The British army, meanwhile, was restricted in its opera- 
lions to the lower sections of New Jersey, and the proud enemy, 
who a few weeks before were driving the Americans before them, 
sweeping the whole county, from the Hudson to the Delaware, with 
victorious march, and frightening Congress away from Philadelphia, 
now only occupied a line from New Brunswick to Amboy, and held 
a footing in New Jersey by a feeble tenure. 

The mercenary Hessians, whose sole gratification and interest 
seemed to be plunder, had treated the people of all parties in New 
Jersey with unfeeling cruelty, and committed outrages which only the 
most barbarous nations would be willing to sanction.! The decre- 
pitude of old age, the defenceless virtue of woman, and the innocence 
of little children, were regarded as naught when weighed in the 
scale of their acquisitiveness and lust. These enormities, which 
English writers have only excused but not denied, were soon instru- 
mental in destroying the loyalty of tories ; and when the victo- 
rious arm of Washington gave earnest of success, the people made 
common cause against the invaders. In small parties they scoured 
the country in every direction, suddenly falling upon the outposts of 
the enemy here, and cutting off stragglers there,! and thus the winter 

* For two days preceding they had no rest, and after the battle at Princeton 
had ended, they actually fell down through the overpowering influence of sleep. 
They were almost naked, and constantly endured the torments of hunger, while 
the enemy had everything in abundance. 

t The British troops were not far behind them in these scenes of violence. 

I At Springfield between forty and fifty Germans were killed, wounded, am. 
taken prisoners, by New Jersey militia ; and General Dickenson, with a small force, 
defeated a foraging party of more than six hundred men, near Somerset Court liottsr 



222 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 

Small-pox in the American Army. Capture of Stores at Peekskill. 

passed, while both the Commanders-in-chief were preparing for the 
next campaign ; Washington at Morristown, and General Howe in 
New York. 

During the lull in military operations which took place in February 
and March, Washington occupied a portion of the interval in inocu- 
lating his whole army with the small-pox, which had made dreadful 
ravages in some quarters, and had begun its work of death in his 
camp at Morristown. In this he was eminently successful, and very 
soon disarmed that subtle enemy of nearly all its terrors. 

General Howe's plan for the next campaign was extensive, and, 
if he had possessed activity and a numerical force sufficient, might 
have been eminently successful, for it was well conceived. He 
determined to leave a sufficient detachment in New Jersey to protect 
the strip of territory he then held there, while one expedition was to 
ascend the Hudson and capture the immense depot of stores in the 
vicinity of Peekskill, where still remained a detachment of the 
American army under General Heath ; and another expedition was 
to land at Rhode Island, after devastating the coast, and from thence 
push on to Boston. These expeditions were planned in expectation 
of a reinforcement of fifteen thousand men from Europe in the spring.* 
Towards the last of March, Howe sent a powerful ar- 

a March 23. . TT , . . 

mament up the Hudson to capture or to destroy the 
military stores at Peekskill. In this they succeeded. The Ameri- 
cans, finding themselves threatened with an overwhelming force, set 
fire to their magazines and retreated. About the same time, General 
Lincoln, who was stationed at Boundbrook, in New Jersey, was 
surprised in his camp by the sudden appearance of Cornwallis 
marching his forces on both sides of the Raritan River. Lincoln 
retreated with the loss of part of his baggage and about sixty men. 

Elated with this success, a similar expedition was undertaken upon 
the borders of Connecticut. Tryon, the late royal Governor of New 
York, who fled on board the " Asia" ship of war after hearing 

* Parliament assembled on the thirty-first of October, and after several stormy 
debates, they finally voted large supplies for the army in America, and also entered 
into negotiations for more German troops. They also issued " Letters of Marque," 
for the purpose of reprisals on the American waters. Chatham took an active part 
in the debates, and strenuously opposed the scheme for employing more German 
troops. " You have," said he, " ransacked every corner of Lower Saxony ; but 
forty thousand German boors can never conquer ten times the number of British 

freemen. You may ravage — you cannot conquer the Americans You have 

got nothing in America but stations. You have been three years teaching them the 
art of war. They are apt scholars, and I will venture to tell your Lordships that 
American gentry will make officers enough to command the troops of all the Euro- 
pean powers. What you have sent there are too many to make peace, too few to 
make war." 



chap, vii.] EVENTS OF 1777. 223 

Burning of Danbury. Death of General Wooster. 

of the evacuation of Boston by Howe, was placed in command of 
two thousand troops, and proceeded to the execution of a commission 
exactly suited to his taste and ability — sacking and burning peaceful 
and defenceless towns, and plundering the people. He sailed with 
his troops from New York on the twenty-fifth of April, and landed 
between Fairfield and Norwalk, in Connecticut ; and on the . , „ 
following day a reached Danbury without interruption. A 
small garrison under the command of Colonel Huntington, perceiving 
resistance vain, retired to a stronger position in the rear of , , , 

. b April 27. 

the town. On Sunday morning b Tryon ordered the town to 

be burnt, and in a short time many of the houses were laid in ashes, 

and the magazine was entirely destroyed. 

The loss was very severe to the Americans, for among the pro- 
perty destroyed were several hundred tents, which the army greatly 
needed, and materials for more could not be procured.* This event 
aroused the whole country, and the militia assembled in large num- 
bers, in the vicinity of Danbury. General Arnold, who happened to 
be in the neighborhood, engaged in recruiting men for the service, 
hastened to join them. General Wooster, who held the rank of 
Brigadier, arrived about the same time from another quarter, with 
Connecticut troops, and the English, observing this addition to the 
American force with alarm, began a retreat by way of Ridge field. 
The Americans endeavored to intercept them, and Wooster with 
his force hung upon their rear, frequently engaging them in skir- 
mishes. In one of these, Wooster was mortally wounded, and 
died soon after being carried off the field.! Seeing their commander 
fall, his soldiers fled in confusion. 

Arnold took the command, and in the meantime got possession of 
Ridgefield, and constructed a sort, of entrenchment to cover his 
front. He was soon attacked by the English, and a hot skirmish 
ensued for some lime.! The Americans were finally repulsed and 
fled in haste to Paugatuck, three miles from Norwalk. Tryon 
remained at Rido;efield that night, and having satisfied his 

° ° i3 c April 2D. 

brutality by setting fire to several houses, in the mornings 

* They burned eighteen houses, sixteen hundred barrels of pork and beef, six 
hundred barrels of flour, two thousand bushels of wheat, rye, and Indian corn, two 
thousand tents, and a considerable quantity of military clothing. Nothing was 
spared but the houses and other property of the tories. 

t General Wooster was then nearly seventy years of age, but was as actively 
engaging in the service of his country as if he had but just passed the years of 
adolescence. Congress resolved that a monument should be erected to Wooster, 
and testified their satisfaction towards Arnold by the gift of a horse richly caparisoned. 

% During this engagement Arnold had his horse shot under him, and while trying 
to extricate himself, was charged with a fixed bayonet by a tory soldier. He drew 
his pistol and shot the soldier dead. 

15 



224 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 

Destruction of British Vessels and Stores at Sag Harbor. Opening of the Campaign. 

marched towards the Sound. He was harassed by Arnold all the 
way, and before he was able to embark was obliged to engage in 
several skirmishes. During this expedition the British lost in killed, 
wounded, and prisoners, nearly three hundred men. The American 
loss was much less. 

About this time the Connecticut Generals were informed that an 
immense magazine of forage, grain, and other necessaries for the 
troops, had been formed by the British at Sag Harbor, on Long 
Island. They at once planned an expedition to destroy it, and sent 
Colonel Meigs, one of Arnold's companions in the expedition to Cana- 
da, to execute the dangerous commission. He arrived there 
before dawn,° burned a dozen brigs and sloops which lay at 
the wharf, and entirely destroyed everything on shore. He then, 
without loss, returned to Guilford, in Connecticut, with a number of 
prisoners. Congress ordered an elegant sword to be presented to 
Colonel Meigs for his gallant conduct on this occasion. 

Strange inaction characterized the British army during the spring. 
Instead of commencing operations early, and thus taking advantage 
of the still small force under Washington, it was near the middle of 
June before General Howe thought it expedient to open the campaign. 
Washington, in the meanwhile, was gradually increasing his army at 
Morristown, and awaiting the development of the plans of the ene- 
my. He suspected Howe's intentions to be either to direct his first 
movements towards the Delaware, and attempt to capture Philadel- 
phia, or to seize the passes of the Hudson, and thus form a conjunc- 
tive cooperation with General Burgoyne, then mustering a large 
army in Canada, to invade the States from the north. With a view 
of preventing the success of either movement, the northern forces 
of the Americans were concentrated on the Hudson, and a strong 
division under Arnold was encamped on the western shore of the 
Delaware. Thus disposed, the whole of the forces could be soon 
brought together, to act at either point, as occasion might require. 

Towards the last of May, seeing no movement on the part of 
General Howe, Washington broke up his encampment at Morris- 
town, and marched to Middlebrook, a strong position within ten miles 
of the British camp at New Brunswick, and covering the route to 
Philadelphia from Howe's head-quarters in New York. 

On the twelfth of June, General Howe, with the main division of 
his army, passed over from New York, and concentrated nearly all 
his forces at New Brunswick. The American army, which num- 
bered about eight thousand men when Washington left his head 
quarters at Morristown, was now swelled to about fourteen thousand 
General Howe, after remaining in front of the Americans two days 



chap, vii.] EVENTS OF 1777. 225 

Stratagem of General Howe. Evacuation of New Jersey by the British- 

and reconnoitring their camp, concluded it was too strong to be 
attacked with success, and he resolved to effect by strategy what he 
could not accomplish by force, — get Washington away from his 
strong post. For this purpose he advanced, rapidly, with nearly his 
whole army, towards Somerset Court House, feigning a design to 
cross the Delaware. Failing to draw Washington from his a June u 
post by this manoeuvre, he made another feint, a few days 
afterwards, which succeeded better. He suddenly retreated 
first towards Brunswick, 6 and then to Amboy , c and even c une 
sent some detachments over to Staten Island. Partly deceived by 
these movements, and hoping to reap some advantage by harassing the 
British rear, Washington sent strong detachments after the retreating 
enemy, and also advanced with his whole force to Quibbletown, five 
or six miles from Middlebrook. This was what General Howe 
desired, and accordingly, on the night of the twenty-fifth, he suddenly 
recalled his troops from Staten Island and Amboy, and early the 
next morning marched rapidly towards the American lines, hoping to 
prevent their retreat back to Middlebrook, and thus bring on a gene- 
ral action. But Washington was too vigilant for him, and with 
the greatest celerity reached his strong position at Middlebrook 
again. Lord Cornwallis pursued a detachment under Lord Stirling 
for some distance, and finally, an engagement took place, which 
resulted in routing the Americans and driving them to their 
camp. Other skirmishes took place/ but with little loss on 
either side. 

Finding it useless to attempt to dislodge Washington, or to cross 
the Delaware, and seeing the militia flocking to his standard in large 
numbers, General Howe again withdrew all his forces to Amboy, 
and finally passed over a bridge of boats to Staten Island with his 
entire army, leaving the Americans in full and quiet posses- 
sion oi i\ew Jersey. 

General Howe, having abandoned all idea of forming a junction 
with Burgoyne, turned his attention towards Philadelphia. Fearing 
to attempt to cross the Delaware, he resolved to proceed thither by 
the way of the Chesapeake, and thus avoid the forts on the Dela- 
ware. The British fleet, under Lord Howe, was then lying at Sandy 
Hook, and the Commander-in-chief ordered it to Staten Island, 
where he embarked about eighteen thousand troops/ and 
sailed for Philadelphia. He left General Sir Henry Clinton f 
with a large force to defend New York, and on the twenty-third of 
July appeared off the Capes of Delaware. 

As soon as Washington received intelligence of the embarkation 
of the British troops, he felt quite sure that their destination was 



226 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 

Capture of Major-General Prescott. Landing of the British at Elk River. 

up the Hudson River. This belief was strengthened by the report 
that General Burgoyne had appeared with a large force in the vicinity 
of Ticonderoga, and Washington ordered General Sullivan with a 
detachment to cross the Hudson and encamp in the rear of Peeks- 
kill. Lord Stirling was also ordered to cross and join General 
Putnam, who guarded the heights at that place ;* and other measures 
were taken to prevent the passage of the British army up the Hudson. 

Washington, however, soon learned the destination of General 
a Jniy°3 Howe, and immediately put the main body of his army in 
motion towards Philadelphia." A few days previous to 
b July 10. jjjj SjJ an even t occurred which greatly elated the army. 
Major-General Prescott, who commanded the British forces on Rhode 
Island, believing himself perfectly secure at the head of a powerful 
army, and within sight of a numerous fleet, had taken quarters some 
distance from his camp and with few guards. On the night of the 
tenth of July, Colonel Barton, with forty picked men, left Warwick 
Point on the main land, in five whale boats, landed quietly upon the 
Island, marched silently to the lodgings of General Prescott, seized 
him in bed, conducted him safely through the midst of his own 
troops on land, and the vessels of the fleet, and reached the main 
land before he was missed ! The Americans thus became possessed 
of an officer of equal rank with General Lee, for whom they offered 
him in exchange, but were refused.! Congress honored Barton with 
the gift of an elegant sword. 

The British fleet, having sailed up the Chesapeake, reached Elk 
River on the twenty-fifth of August, where the troops were landed, 
and immediately commenced their march towards Philadelphia. In 
the meanwhile, Washington had moved the main body of his army 

* Whilst General Putnam occupied this post, a spy by the name of Palmer, from 
General Clinton's camp at New York, was caught and brought in. Governor Tryon, 
then with Clinton, demanded his release. General Putnam answered the demand 
as follows : — 

" To Governor Tryon : — Sir — Nathan Palmer, a lieutenant in your service, was 
taken in my camp as a spy ; he was tried as a spy ; he was condemned as a spy ; 
and you may rest assured, sir, he shall be hanged as a spy. 

" I have the honor to be, &c, Israel Putnam. 

" P.S. — Afternoon — He is hanged." 

} The British Commander-in-chief refused to exchange Lee, on the ground that 
ne was a deserter from the English army, having served in Portugal under Bur- 
goyne, and also under General Amherst, in America. He therefore was not con- 
sidered a prisoner of war, and the general expectation was, that he would be shot. 
Congress, on hearing of this refusal, directed Washington to inform General Howe 
that five Hessian field-officers, then prisoners, and Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, 
who, just after Howe evacuated Boston, sailed in, and, with three hundred men, 
was made prisoner, should be placed in confinement, and receive precisely such 
treatment as might be given to Lee 



chap, vii.] EVENTS OF 1777. 227 

Acceptance of the Services of La Fayette. Meeting of the two armies at the Brandywine River. 

to Germantown, to await certain information of the destination of 
General Howe. During a suspense of two or three days, he took 
the opportunity of conferring with Committees of Congress at Phila- 
delphia, and it was at that time that he had his first interview with 
the young Marquis de La Fayette.* The numerous applications of 
foreigners to Congress for leave to join the army, caused the first 
overture of this young nobleman to be rejected by that body ; but 
when, by a letter to Hancock, he assured them he desired to join it 
as a volunteer, and without pay, it was so extraordinary that he was 
accepted. As soon as Washington arrived in Philadelphia, he was 
introduced to him, and during the interview, the accomplishments, 
enthusiasm, and evident patriotism of La Fayette made a very 
favorable impression upon the mind of the Commander-in-chief. He 
was appointed by Congress a Major-General f in the army, and was 
invited by Washington to become a member of his military family, 
which position he maintained during the war. 

Not hearing of the British fleet, Washington determined to return 
to the banks of the Hudson and attack New York, or march against 
Burgoyne, now advancing with a large army in the direction of 
Albany ; but on the very day he was to march, intelligence arrived 
of the landing of Howe near Elk River. Lie immediately recalled 
his detachments from New Jersey, and with his whole force marched 
to Wilmington. Advance parties from each army soon met, and 
several skirmishes took place, during which the Americans captured 
about sixty prisoners. 

As the British army approached, Washington look post upon the 
high ground near Chad's Ford, on the river Brandywine. His right 
wing, under Sullivan, was posted so as to guard the fords above, and 
the Pennsylvania militia, under General Armstrong, were stationed 
about two miles below. Thus prepared, the Americans awaited the 
attack of the enemy. 

At daybreak on the morning of the eleventh of September, Howe 
put his army in motion in two divisions ; one under Knyphausen, 
taking the direct road to Chad's Ford ; the other, led by Cornwallis, 
moving along the Lancaster road, which ran nearly parallel with the 
Brandywine River. Sir William Howe was with this division. 
The action commenced by Colonel Maxwell attacking Knyphausen's 

* The circumstances connected with the first impulses which led La Fayette to 
espouse the cause of the Republicans, and the patriotic manner in which he obeyed 
that impulse, are too well known to Americans to render a recital necessary here 
The names of Washington and La Fayette are so inseparably connected, that it 
seems to be a sort of treason against the just laws of patriotic sentiment for any 
American to be ignorant of the life of either. 

t He then lacked one month of being twenty years of age. 



228 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 



Battle of Brandywine. 



advanced parties ; but he was soon repulsed. Knyphausen kept up 
a heavy fire of artillery, but made no attempt to cross the river, 
contented to send small bodies over for the purpose of skirmishing. 
His object was thus to occupy the attention of the Americans until 
Cornwallis should silently march round and attack their rear. Sus- 
pecting this, Washington sent patrols above, and he was soon 
informed by a message from General Sullivan, that a large division 
of the enemy was crossing the forks of the Brandywine. Wash- 
ington immediately ordered Sullivan to push across the river and 
attack them, while he should perform the same service againsl 
Knyphausen. But it was too late, and about two o'clock Cornwallis 
gained the heights near Birmingham Meeting House, within two 
miles of Sullivan's flank. Sullivan immediately began to form his 
troops for action, but before he could accomplish it, he was furiously 
attacked by Cornwallis, his line was broken, the rest thrown into 
confusion, and he was obliged to retreat. 

As soon as this firing was heard, Knyphausen crossed the river 
and assaulted the American entrenchments at Chad's Ford. He 
was met by General Wayne, who defended the post with his usual 
gallantry, but, at the head of a single division only, he was in no 
condition to withstand half of the British army. General Greene, 
with another division, had removed to a central point between Chad's 
Ford and Sullivan's scene of action, whence he could give support 
to either party, as circumstances might require. Covering Sullivan's 
retreat, and seizing a pass about a mile from Dilworth, he checked 
the pursuit of the enemy, and sustained a warm engagement until 
dark. The firing then ceased. The British remained on the field 
of battle, and the Americans retreated in much disorder by differ- 
fe t ,„ ent routes, to Chester, and the next day a to Philadelphia.* 

According to Marshall, the British force in this engage- 
ment amounted to eighteen thousand men ; that of the Americans, to 
a little more than eleven thousand. The number of Americans slain 
is not accurately known, as Washington could not make a return to 
Congress. Howe states that there were three hundred killed, six 
hundred wounded, and four hundred taken prisoners.! He computes 
the British loss at ninety killed, four hundred and eighty wounded, 
and six missing. 



* Sparks's Life of Washington (1 vol.), pp. 231-234. Howe's Narrative, pp. 26-27. 

f Count Pulaski, a brave Polander, distinguished himself in this battle, and was 
soon after raised to the rank of a Brigadier-General. La Fayette was severely 
wounded in the leg, and disabled from active service for two months. He would, no 
doubt, have been made prisoner, had not his aide-de-camp, M. Gemat, put him upon 
his horse and escaped. 



chap, vii.] EVENTS OF 1777. 229 



Entrance of the British into Philadelphia. Adjournment of Congress to Lancaster. 



After a few days' rest, notwithstanding the disparity of numbers, 
Washington resolved to risk another battle, and if possible, save 
Philadelphia. He accordingly recrossed the Schuylkill, and ad- 
vanced against the enemy near Goshen, about eighteen miles 
west of Philadelphia. A violent rain storm, which injured 
their powder, obliged both armies to defer the battle. General 
Wayne, who with fifteen hundred men had been ordered 
to harass the enemy's rear, was surprised at night* near * Se i£ 21, 
Paoli, and three hundred of his troops were killed. 

Alarmed for the safety of his military stores and extensive maga- 
zines at Reading, Washington abandoned Philadelphia and 

c Sept. 22. 

took post at Pottsgrove. The next day c the British army 
crossed the Schuylkill ; and on the twenty-sixth entered Philadel- 
phia without opposition, and pushed forwards to Germantown. 
Congress, alarmed at the proximity of the British forces, had pre- 
viously adjourned to Lancaster, where they remained until General 
Howe left the city. 

A large portion of the British troops were now employed in 
reducing the forts on the Delaware. General Howe had previously 
ordered the fleet to sail around the Capes and pass up the river to 
cooperate with him. They ascended as far as New Castle, but 
were there impeded by a chevaux-de-frise, and were obliged to 
remain there inactive for some time. 

On the twenty-first of October, a detachment of Hessians, under 
Count Donop, crossed the Delaware, and attacked the fort at Red 
Bank ; but they were repulsed with a loss of about four hundred 
men, among whom was the commander. Soon after, a gap having 
been made in the chevaux T de-frise, a part of the fleet passed through, 
but two of the vessels got aground, and were put in much jeopardy 
by two .or three fire-ships sent down upon them by the Americans. 
One of the vessels was burned, but the others, with great difficulty, 
escaped. 

On the fifteenth of November, the Americans were forced to 
leave the fortifications on Mud Island, and on the seventeenth, Lord 
Cornwallis, with a large force, marched against Red Bank, from 
whence the Americans at once retreated, and joined the main body 
of the army. The chevaux-de-frise was soon after removed, and 
the fleet.had an unobstructed passage up the Delaware to Philadel- 
phia. 

While the British camp at Germantown was weakened by the 
absence of these several detachments on the Delaware, Washington 
resolved to attack it, and endeavor to re-obtain possession of Phila- 
delphia. Accordingly, about seven o'clock in the evening of the 



* ■ 



230 


THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 


Battle of Germantown. 


Encampment at Valley Forge. 



third of October, the Americans advanced in four divisions, and, 
after a march of fourteen miles, at dav-break the next morn- 

a Oct. 4. "... 

ing a took the British by surprise. A battle immediately- 
commenced, and for a time victory seemed to tender the palm to the 
Americans ; but finally, after a severe action, they were repulsed 
with great slaughter. They lost about twelve hundred men in 
killed, wounded, and prisoners. The British loss was not more 
than half that number. Soon after that, General Howe broke up 
his encampment at Germantown, and, with his whole force, took 
quarters in Philadelphia. 

When the Delaware was cleared, and there was a free communi- 
cation for the British between New York and Philadelphia, by way 
of that river, General Howe determined to close the campaign by an 
attack upon Washington, then stationed at Whitemarsh, about eleven 
miles northwest from the metropolis. On the night of the fourth of 
December, Howe marched out of Philadelphia, and took post upon 
Chestnut Hill, in front of the American army, now reinforced by 
about four thousand men from the victorious battalions of the north. 
Howe found Washington's position too strong to risk a general 
attack, and, after a few days' skirmishing, he fell back upon Phila- 
delphia again. 

Washington now anxiously sought the most favorable place for his 
winter-quarters. He saw that if he encamped at Lancaster, York, 
or Carlisle, where his army w r ould have comfortable quarters, he 
would leave a large and fertile territory entirely exposed to the ene- 
my. He therefore resolved to make his quarters near enough to the 
capital to keep the British within strait bounds, and, if opportu- 
nity offered that seemed to promise success, to attack him in his 
camp. He selected a dreary, but strong position at Valley Forge, a 
deep hollow about twenty miles northwest from Philadelphia ; and 
upon the mountainous borders of this valley the whole American 
army encamped, during one of the most rigorous winters ever expe- 
rienced in this country. The American soldiers were too ill clad to 
admit of their passing the inclement season under tents, and Wash- 
ington therefore ordered that a sufficient number of huts large 
enough to accommodate twelve men each, should be erected, made 
of logs, and filled between with mortar. So intensely cold was the 
weather, and so exhausted were the soldiers when they commenced 
their march towards Valley Forge, that some were seen to drop dead 
under the benumbing influence of the frost ; others, without shoes, 
had their feet cut by the ice, and left their tracks in blood ! But the 
huts were soon erected, and the whole army were comfortably 
lodged in these barracks. Of the subsequent hardships and great 




1 9 



chap, vii.] EVENTS OF 1777. 233 

Military operations at the North. Concentration of British forces. 

privations of this band of patriots during their encampment at Val- 
ley Forge, we shall again speak. 

We now turn our attention to the operations of the northern division 
of the army. While the Commander-in-chief was suffering reverses 
upon the banks of the Delaware, the northern army, under Generals 
Schuyler and Gates, was achieving glorious victories. The re- 
verses of the previous year had not at all dampened the ardor of the 
troops in that quarter, and, expecting the successes of the British 
in expelling the Americans from Canada at the close of 1776 would 
be followed up in the spring by an invasion, they had made prepara- 
tions for such an event. Early in the year, Governor Carleton was 
superseded in his command of the British forces in Canada, by 
General Burgoyne, a brave and experienced officer ; but the reasons 
for this act on the part of ministers are not known, as no censure 
seems ever to have been cast upon Carleton.* A plan was concerted 
by the ministry t by which Burgoyne, with a large force, was to 
penetrate the back settlements of New York, and form a junction 
with General Howe at the metropolis, and thus effect the plan con- 
templated by the British Commander-in-chief after his successful 
pursuit of Washington across the Jerseys at the close of the previous 
year. 

Burgoyne arrived at Quebec on the sixth of May. Between the 
seventeenth and twentieth of June, his forces, consisting of a large 
body of veterans from England, about two thousand five hundred 
French Canadians, and as many Hessians, to the number of seven 
thousand two hundred men, exclusive of a corps of artillery, assem- 
bled at Cumberland Point, on Lake Champlain, and on the twenty- 
first, he was joined by about four hundred Indians of various tribes.:}: 
On the thirtieth, he left St. John,s for Crown Point, where he esta- 
blished magazines, and then proceeded to invest Ticonde- 

-r. i r t. ° July -• 

roga. a By express orders of ministers, Burgoyne immedi- 
ately put under arms, and secured for the British service, several 
tribes of Indians inhabiting the country between the Mohawk River 
and Lake Ontario. 



* General Carleton felt very much aggrieved, and at once sent his resignation of 
the office of Governor of Canada to ministers. Still he was obliged to remaLu until 
the arrival of his successor, and with the most honorable and patriotic spirit, he ren- 
dered Burgoyne all the assistance in his power in the meanwhile. Burgoyne him- 
self, testifies to " the assiduous and cordial manner in which the different services 
were forwarded by Sir Guy Carleton." — Burgoytie's Narrative, quarto, p. 6. Lon- 
don : 17S0. 

t It is believed that the plan was the joint invention of George III., Burgoyne, 
and Lord George Germaine. 

\ Algonquins, Iroquois, Abenekies, and Ottawas. 



234 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 

Investment of Ticonderoga. Retreat of the Americans and destruction of their Stores 

At the same time that Burgoyne* marched upon Ticonderoga, 
Colonel St. Leger was despatched with about two thousand men, 
mostly Canadians and Indians, by way of Oswego, against Fort 
Schuyler, on the Mohawk. f He was directed to conquer that fort> 
and then rejoin the army upon the Hudson River. 

Before proceeding to attack Ticonderoga, Burgoyne gave a great 
war-feast to the Indians, and issued a proclamation calling upon the 
Americans to surrender, or suffer the consequences of savage fero- 
city 4 General St. Clair was the commander of the garrison, which 
consisted of about three thousand men, and perceiving the overwhelm- 
ing numbers of the enemy, withdrew from the fort to its immediate 
vicinity. He had previously fortified Mount Independence, a high 
hill opposite Ticonderoga, and on retiring from the fort St. Clair 
contemplated fortifying Mount Defiance also, but finding his numbers 
insufficient to garrison any new works, the design was abandoned. 

The British lines were extended in front of the peninsula on which 
Ticonderoga was erected, and invested the place on the northwest, 
while the Hessians were posted on the opposite side of the lake, in 
ihe rear of Mount Independence. Perceiving the great advantage 
that would be secured by placing their artillery on the summit of 
Mount Defiance, the British generals at once commenced 
1 y ' the labor of effecting this end. This was soon accomplished," 
and the artillery was speedily placed in proper position for attack. 

Resistance on the part of the Americans seemed rash, and St. 
Clair determined to evacuate the works and retreat to Skeenesbo- 
rough. Accordingly he let his camp-fires go out, struck his tents, 
and amid the profound silence of the forest and the night, placed 
the baggage and provisions on board batteaux, and retreated. The 
accidental burning of a building on Mount Independence, discovered 
to the British the flight of the Americans, and they immediately gave 
chase. The batteaux, which were embarked on South River, were 
in a few hours overtaken and destroyed.* The main body 
of the army continued to retreat as the British approached, 
leaving behind them artillery and stores ; but they were overtaken 
at Hubbardton§ on the morning of the seventh, by General Fraser, 
who had hotly pursued them all the way, a distance of about twenty 

* Burgoyne had with him some of the best officers then in America. Major- 
General Philips, Brigadier-General Fraser, Brigadiers Powell and Hamilton, the 
Brunswick Major-General Reidesel, and Brigadier-General Specht. 

f Situated on the site of the present village of Rome. It was first called Fort 
Stanwix. 

% Pictorial History of the Reign of George III., vol. i., p. 307. 

§ Within the limits of Vermont, and about seventeen miles southeast from Ticon 
deroga. 



chap. vii. J EVENTS OF 1777. 235 

Retreat of the Americano towards the Hudson. Murder of Miss McCrei. 

miles. A skirmish ensued, and the Americans were routed, with 
great loss, having two hundred killed, six hundred wounded, and 
two hundred taken prisoners. Soon after this, the remnants 
of the various divisions reached Fort Edward," the head- uy 
quarters of General Schuyler. In these disastrous retreats and con- 
flicts, the Americans lost nearly two hundred pieces of artillery, 
and a large amount of provisions and stores. 

The British generals followed up their successes with vigor, and 
General Schuyler, whose force was reduced to about four thousand 
men, considered it prudent to evacuate Fort Edward and retreat 
towards the Hudson. Being well acquainted with the country, 
he retreated. along the banks of the Hudson until he reached the 
islands situated at the mouth of the Mohawk, where he established 
his head-quarters. Here he was soon after reinforced by the New 
England militia under General Lincoln, and several detachments 
from the regular army, accompanied by the celebrated Polish 
General, Thaddeus Kosciusko, who in October,* 1776, had 
been appointed Chief-Engineer of the Continental army, with the 
rank of Colonel. By these reinforcements Schuyler's army was 
augmented, by the middle of August, to about fifteen thousand men. 

Burgoyne, having despatched General Phillips by the way of Lake 
George, towards Fort Edward, with the baggage and stores, proceeded 
in pursuit of the Americans across the country ; but Schuyler in his 
retreat had felled trees athwart the roads, destroyed the bridges, and 
thus so impeded his progress, that he did not reach Fort Edward 
until the thirteenth of July.* He now learned that a part of the 
original plan had been abandoned by Howe. Instead of marching 

* Burgoyne was obliged to construct forty bridges on his route, and his batteaux 
had to be dragged from creek to creek by oxen. During the halt of the British 
army at Fort Edward, an incident occurred which greatly increased the odium 
justly cast upon the British ministry, because of their barbarous order for Burgoyne 
to form an alliance with the ferocious savages of the wilderness. A young lady 
named McCrea, represented as beautiful and accomplished, the daughter of an 
American loyalist, was, just previous to the war, affianced to a young English 
officer named Jones. He was with Burgoyne when he reached Fort Edward, and 
hearing that his intended bride was in the vicinity, he despatched a party of Indians 
with a letter and his horse, to bring Miss McCrea in safety to the camp, promising 
to reward them with a barrel of rum. The young lady unhesitatingly put herself 
under their protection, and set out for the British camp. On the way, two of the 
principal savages got into a dispute about which should present her to her lover, 
and receive the reward, when one of them killed her with his tomahawk to prevent 
the other from receiving it ! The murderer was given up to Burgoyne, but, as a 
matter of expediency, the savage's life was spared. This bloody deed awakened a 
feeling of horror throughout the whole country, and many warm loyalists, depre- 
cating the employment of these savages, abandoned the cause of the Crown and 
joined the Patriots. 



236 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 



Battle of Bennington. Siege of Fort Schuyl er and Death of General Herkimer. 

up the Hudson, and joining him, he learned that Howe had retreated 
to Staten Island with the view of proceeding from thence by 
water, to capture Philadelphia. About a week before Burgoyne 
reached Fort Edward, the forces of Howe were off the Capes of 
Delaware. 

Burgoyne now determined to await the arrival of St. Leger and 
General Phillips before commencing his march anew. Finding his 
supply of provisions greatly reduced, he despatched Colonel 
Baum, a a distinguished German officer, with between five 
and six hundred men, to Bennington, in Vermont, to seize upon 
a large quantity of stores which the Americans had collected there. 
This detachment was met near Bennington 6 by General 
Stark,* at the head of a large body of New Hampshire 
militia on their way to join the northern army, and a furious battle 
ensued. Baum was mortally wounded, and his party totally dis- 
persed. Learning that the Americans were gathering in large num- 
bers, he had previously sent to Burgoyne for reinforcements ; but 
Colonel Breyman, who was sent with five hundred men, did not 
arrive at Bennington until the battle was over. Colonel Warner, 
who had just arrived with a Continental regiment, attacked this 
detachment, and defeated it. The loss of the British in these two 
battles was about seven hundred men (mostly prisoners), while the 
American loss was less than one hundred. 

The intelligence of the result of the Bennington expedition, the 
first reverse the British had yet met with in this campaign, was a 
sad tale for the ear of Burgoyne ; and in verification of the apothegm, 
*' misfortunes seldom come single," he heard about the same time 
of the defeat of St. Leger. It was about the first of August that 
St. Leger reached Fort Schuyler, and commenced a siege. General 
Herkimer, hearing of the investment of the fort, at once raised the 
militia in the vicinity, to the number of about one thousand, 
and proceeded to the relief of the garrison. Hearing of 
this movement, St. Leger despatched Sir John Johnson and a large 
body of Indians to form an ambuscade along the route which it 
was presumed General Herkimer would take. This plan was 
successful, and so sudden was the furious attack of the savages, 
that Herkimer, and nearly four hundred of his men, were killed 

* General Stark had been in the old French and Indian war, and was at Bunker 
Hill and Trenton. It is said that he greatly animated his troops a moment before 
the charge at Bennington, by shouting, with uplifted sword, " My fellow-soldiers, 
we conquer to-day, or Mary Stark sleeps a widow to-night !" He was the last 
surviving general of the Revolution, and died at Manchester, New Hampshire, in 
1S22, aged ninety-four years. 



chap, vii.] EVENTS OF 1777. 237 

British Encampment at Saratoga. Battle of Stillwater. 

or wounded.* About the same time, Colonel Gansevoort, com- 
manding the garrison, made a successful sortie from the fort. He 
penetrated the camp of the besiegers, killed a great many, and 
carried off a large supply of stores. Rumors having been received 
that Burgovne's army was all cut to pieces, and that Arnold (which 
was true) was approaching with a considerable force, the savages, 
frightened, commenced deserting. St. Leger saw that a retreat was 
necessary, and he abandoned the siege. Arnold did not arrive at the 
fort until two days after the siege had been raised. 

Burgoyne now found difficulties fast gathering around him. He 
was in the midst of a vast wilderness with enemies on every side, 
and feeling but little reliance upon his savage allies ; his provisions 
were nearly exhausted, and he felt that he must soon conquer or 
surrender, for retreat was almost impossible. Accordingly, having 
collected his artillery and a supply of provisions for thirty days, he 
constructed a bridge of boats, and on the thirteenth and fourteenth 
of September, passed his whole army across the Hudson, and 
encamped on the heights and plains of Saratoga. The American 
army under General Gates, who had recently been appointed to the 
chief command of the northern division, moved from their encamp- 
ment at the mouth of the Mohawk, and pitched their tents near 
Stillwater, about twenty miles north of Albany, and on the west 
side of the Hudson. Here they were joined by about two thousand 
men under Arnold, making the force of the Americans about thirteen 
thousand strong. The two armies were now within about four miles 
of each other, and on the eighteenth, Burgoyne formed the British 
army close in front of the American left, determined to attempt the 
desperate effort of cutting his way through to Albany, and form a 
junction with the expected forces of Clinton. 

General Gates had erected a star redoubt, and, notwithstanding he 
had an inferior force, he was determined to resist the further pro- 
gress of the British southward to the utmost. At noon on the nine- 
teenth, he sent out about five thousand men to make an attempt to 
fall upon Burgoyne's rear, but discovering the strong position of 
General Fraser, they fell back. Being reinforced, and led on by 
Arnold, they attacked the right wing of the enemy, and about three 
o'clock a general engagement ensued, which lasted till after sunset, 

* The popular tradition among the people of the Mohawk Valley, concerning the 
death of General Herkimer, is, that being severely wounded in the leg, it was 
necessary to amputate it. This being done, and properly bandaged, the two sur- 
geons in attendance having discovered some liquor in the cellar, drank of it until 
they were very drunk. The bandages got loose, and the blood began to flow freely, 
but the surgeons were too drunk to perform their duty, and, notwithstanding the 
efforts of Herkimer's wife to staunch the wound, he soon bled to death. 



238 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 

Expected reinforcements from New York. Expedition of Colonel Brown 

without intermission. At dark the contest ceased. The Americans 
retired within their redoubt, and the British reposed upon their 
arms on the field of battle. The loss in killed and wounded was 
nearly alike on both sides,* and each claimed the victory. 

The two armies remained near to each other, from the day of the 
battle, until the seventh of October : Gates strengthening his position, 
and Burgoyne waiting to hear from Clinton. This delay was disas- 
trous, for, in the meanwhile, he consumed nearly all his provisions. 
Howe was too much occupied with Washington, upon the Dela- 
ware, to bestow a thought upon Burgoyne. But General Clinton 
took the responsibility of affording aid, and informed Burgoyne that 
he would do what he could to effect a junction, by attacking forts 
Montgomery and Clinton, and others of less note, on the Hudson 
nearly opposite Peekskill. Relying upon this promise, Burgoyne 
agreed to remain in his position until the twelfth, hoping that Clin- 
ton would be successful, and by a rapid march, reinforce him by that 
time. But circumstances obliged him to move previous to that date. 

General Gates having been joined also by General Lincoln, with 
about two thousand men, and finding his forces augmenting by fresh 
supplies of militia, determined to attempt the recapture of Forts In- 
dependence, George, and Ticonderoga, and to capture or destroy the 
provisions of the enemy, at various depots, and thus cut off all his com- 
munication with Canada. Accordingly, an expedition under Colonel 
Brown was sent northward, and at the north end of Lake George they 
captured a sloop carrying provisions to Burgoyne, and soon after some 
other vessels fell into their hands. They then proceeded to take 
possession of Mount Hope and Mount Defiance, and attacked 
Ticonderoga. They were repulsed, however, and proceeded in the 
vessels they had captured to Diamond Island, where there was a 
considerable depot of provisions, but were there also repulsed. 
They then pushed for the shore, burned the vessels, and returned to 
the rear of Burgoyne's army. This partial success caused other 
large bodies of Americans to collect along the line of Brown's expe- 
dition, and completely cut off all supplies of provisions for the British 
from the north. The soldiers were reduced to half rations, and the 
Indians, finding Burgoyne would not allow them to plunder, became 
dissatisfied, and deserted, whole tribes at a time. 

Thus situated, Burgoyne found it necessary to make a movement 
for his own preservation. On the seventh of October, he sent out 
about fifteen hundred men to forage and reconnoitre. They ad- 
vanced within half a mile of the left wing of the Americans, when 

* The loss is variously stated, from three to six hundred on each side. 



chap, vii.] EVENTS OF 1777. 239 

Second Battle at Stillwater. Burgoyne's attempted retreat northward 

Arnold sallied forth, attacked, and drove them back to their camp. In 
the meanwhile, Morgan and his riflemen stole round through the woods 
and opened a fire on the flank of the enemy's column, and other troops 
went out from the American entrenchments, and attempted to throw 
themselves between Burgoyne's column of fifteen hundred men, and 
his line, but were prevented by the grenadiers under Major Ackland. 
Burgoyne, however, was obliged to abandon six field-pieces which 
he took out with him, and retreated to his camp. The brave Gene- 
ral Fraser attempted to dislodge Morgan and his men, but fell mor- 
tally wounded ; and at this moment a general battle commenced all 
along the lines. From the British quarter, the Americans were 
repulsed, but they carried the entrenchments of the Germans, and 
completely routed them. About two hundred of them were taken 
prisoners, and several leading officers were killed, among whom was 
Colonel Breyman. The entire loss of the enemy was more than 
four hundred men ; that of the Americans about eighty. 

On the night after the battle, Burgoyne retired to the a 0ct 7 8 
high ground a little above Stillwater, and finally, with his 
whole army, retreated to Saratoga, 4 and endeavored to con- * ct.8,9. 
tinue his retrogression to Fort Edward. He was obliged to leave 
behind him about three hundred sick and wounded, which were 
taken care of in the best manner, by General Gates. 

On the ninth, Burgoyne received intelligence from Sir Henry 
Clinton, of his operations among the lower Hudson highlands, and 
he was in hourly expectation of seeing an attack upon the American 
rear by British troops, which he doubted not were then as far north 
as Albany.* This expedition was one inducement for him to delay 
his attempted retreat towards Fort Edward. Despairing of the 
arrival of Clinton, he made preparations to continue his retreat north- 
ward, on the right bank of the Hudson, and endeavor to reach Fort 
George, on the southern end of the lake of that name. But he was met 
by strong detachments of Americans at Fishkill, a small creek a little 
northward of Saratoga. Finding himself unable to retreat to Fort 
George by the right bank of the river, he determined to abandon his 
artillery, place about three days' provisions in the knapsacks of his 
soldiers, cross the river, dash through the American lines drawn out 
upon the opposite side, and, by this sudden movement, make his 
escape to the lakes, and reach the British shipping upon them. 

Burgoyne, however, learned that the Americans were too strongly 
entrenched on the opposite side of the river, to render the success 
of his plans in the least probable, and he endeavored, as a last resort, 

* Burgoyne's Narrative, p. 16. 



240 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 


[1777. 


Burgoyne's offer of Capitulation. 


His Surrender. 



to tempt the Americans out from their entrenchments, and engage 
in battle, notwithstanding his army was greatly reduced — a mere 
skeleton of what it was when he invested Ticonderoga. Finding his 
provisions exhausted, and no chance either for battle or re- 
treat, he called a council of war,a at which it was decided to 
open negotiations with General Gates to capitulate on the most 
honorable terms that might be procured.* 

A communication was accordingly sent to General Gates, 6 

* Oct. 14. . i v 

offering to capitulate. He at once demanded the uncondi- 
tional surrender of Burgoyne and his army as prisoners of war. 
He stipulated that the British troops should be drawn up in their 
encampment, and there ground their arms. To this Burgoyne re- 
plied, that rather than submit to such terms, he would rush upon the 
Americans at all hazards, determined to give no quarter, and if 
slain, to die as brave soldiers. Unwilling to insist upon extreme 
measures, which might unnecessarily produce great effusion of 
blood, and learning that Clinton was making a successful march up 
the Hudson, Gates humanely and prudently proposed an honorable 
surrender for Burgoyne. He agreed to accept of a surrender, and 
to grant them the " honors of war, and a free passage to Great Bri- 
tain, on condition of their not serving again in North America during 
the contest." Considering the situation of the two armies, these 
terms were highly honorable to the British General, favorable to his 
nation, and reflected great credit upon the humanity and judgment 
of General Gates. 

The articles of capitulation were signed on the seventeenth of 
October, and on the afternoon of that day the British troops marched 
out of their encampment down to the water side, to a place called 
the Old Ford,t where they piled their arms at the word of command 
from their own officers. Several of the officers could scarcely pro- 
nounce the words, and many of the men wept as they grounded 
their arms. Gates was a man of fine feelings. He kept away from 

* In a letter to the Secretary of War (Lord George Germaine), Burgoyne thus 
describes his situation : — " A series of hard toil, incessant effort, stubborn action, 
until disabled in the collateral branches of the army, by the total defection of the 
Indians, the desertion or timidity of the Canadians and provincials, some individu- 
als excepted ; disappointed in the last hope of any cooperation, from other armies ; 
the regular troops reduced by losses from the best parts, to thirty-five hundred 
fighting men, not two thousand of whom were British ; only three days' provisions, 
upon short allowance, in store ; invested by an army of sixteen thousand men, and 
no appearance of retreat remaining, I called into council all the generals, field- 
officers, and captains commanding corps, and by their unanimous concurrence and 
advice, I was induced to open a treaty with Major-General Gates." 

f On the ruins of Fort Hardy, which was built during the French and Indian 
wars. 




Surrender of Burgoyne. P. 340- 



chap, vii.] EVENTS OF 1777. 243 

Entire Dispersion of the northern British army. Narrative of the Baroness Eeidesel 

the spot himself, and he would not suffer his own people to be wit- 
nesses to the sad spectacle.* Every possible courtesy was shown to 
the officers, and when the act of surrender was accomplished, the 
most friendly intercourse commenced between Generals Gates and 
Burgoyne.f 

The surrender of Burgoyne was the most important event of the. 
year ; indeed it was one of the most important events of the whole 
war. There were surrendered five thousand seven hundred and 
ninety men, of all ranks ; which number, added to the killed, wound- 
ed, and prisoners, lost by the army during the preceding part of the 
campaign, made altogether upwards of ten thousand men. There 
were also surrendered to the captors, thirty-five brass field-pieces, 
nearly five thousand muskets, and an immense quantity of other 
munitions of war. Thus, within the space of a few months, a pow- 
erful British army was entirely broken up, and the whole country, to 
the confines of Canada, fell into the quiet possession of the Ameri- 
cans. 

* This is the testimony of several English and other foreign writers ; among 
them, Stedman, Burke, Gordon, Botta, &c. 

f The Baroness Reidesel, who accompanied her husband, Major-General Reidesel, 
during the whole of this campaign, and with Lady Ackland, endured all the priva- 
tions of the camp, gives, in her very interesting narrative, the following pleasing 
account of her first interview with the American officers : — " As soon as the con- 
vention was signed, my husband sent a message to me to come over to him with my 
children. I seated myself once more in my dear calash, and then rode through the 
American camp. As I passed on, I observed, and this was a great consolation to 
me, that no one eyed me with looks of resentment, but that they all greeted us, 
and even showed compassion in their countenances at the sight of a woman with 
small children. I was, I confess, afraid to go over to the enemy, as it was quite a 
new situation to me. When I drew near the tents, a handsome man approached 
and met me, took my children from the calash, and hugged and kissed them, which 
affected me almost to tears. ' You tremble,' said he, addressing himself to me, ' be 
not afraid.' ' No,' I answered ; ' you seem so kind and tender to my children, it 
inspires me with courage.' He now led me to the tent of General Gates, where I 
found Generals Burgoyne and Phillips, who were on a friendly footing with the 
former. Burgoyne said to me, ' Never mind ; your sorrows have now an end.' I 
answered him, ' that I should be reprehensible to have any cares, as he had none,' 
and I was pleased to see him on such friendly footing with General Gates. All 
the generals remained to dine with General Gates. The same gentleman who 
received me so kindly, now came and said to me, • you will be very much embar- 
rassed to eat with these gentlemen ; come with your children to my tent, where 1 
will prepare for you a frugal dinner, and give it with a free will.' I said, ' you 
are certainly a husband and a father, you have shoion me so much kindness.'' I 
now found that he was General Schuyler ! " She further states that General 
Schuyler invited her and also Burgoyne, to become his guests at Albany, which they 
accepted. They were treated with great hospitality. On the occasion Burgoyne 
remarked to General Schuyler, " You show me great kindness, though I have done 
you much injury ;" alluding to the fact that he had caused Schuyler's beautiful house 
to be burnt. " That was the fate of war," replied the brave man ; " let us say no 
more about it." 



244 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 

Gold Mcil il struck by order ot" Congress. Movement of General Clinton. 

The news of this brilliant victory caused the greatest joy through- 
out the whole country, and at once dispelled the gloom occasioned by 
the reverses upon the Delaware. The timid became bold, the tories 
were dismayed, and the patriots no longer doubted the final and speedy 
independence of the American States. Congress passed a 
vote of thanks" to Generals Gates, Arnold, and Lincoln, and 
all the troops under their command ; and also ordered a gold medal 
to be struck in honor of the event, " and in the name of the United 
States presented by the President lo Major-General Gates." 

Intelligence of the event reached England on the third of Decem- 
ber, while the Parliament was in session, and it produced a powerful 
effect upon that body. Ministers, alarmed at the failure of their 
plans, endeavored to throw the blame on the commanders ; declared 
that everything that could be done, had been done, on their part ; 
that large armies had been sent, and amply supplied ;* and they 
claimed, that, before being condemned, they were entitled at least 
to a full inquiry. The opposition justified the commanders, and 
cast the whole blame upon the ministry. Chatham denominated 
the expedition " a most wild, uncombined, mad project." Fox said 
that ten thousand men had been destroyed by the wilful ignorance 
and incapacity of Lord George Germaine, the Secretary-at-War ; 
and on all hands, the ministers had their full share of censure. 
Chatham moved for an immediate cessation of hostilities, and 
although his motion was negatived, committees were appointed in 
each House for an inquiry into the slate of the nation, and instructed 
to report at the beginning of February next ensuing. Parliament 
then adjourned till the twentieth of January, 1778. 

General Clinton, to whom Burgoyne looked so anxiously for aid, 
moved from New York with three thousand troops, and pro- 
ceeded up the Hudson. 6 He was left in defence of New- 
York, the chief depot for the stores of the British army ; and its 
accessibility from numerous points, and the fact that Putnam, with 
an army of regulars and numerous bands of intrepid Connecticut 
militia, was hovering near, made Clinton hesitate, and delay his 
departure until expected reinforcements from England should arrive. 
It was late in September when these new recruits came, and hence 
it was only ten days before Burgoyne's surrender, that Clinton began 
his march northward. His movement then was upon his own 

* General Burgoyne's statement contradicts this assertion. He says, " certain parts 
of the expected force, nevertheless, fell short. The Canadian troops, stated in the 
plan at two thousand, consisted only of three companies, intended to be of one 
hundred men each, but in reality not amounting to more than one hundred and 
fifty upon the whole."— Burgoyne's Narrative, p. 7. 



chap, vii.] EVENTS OF 1777. 245 

Passage of the Dunderberg and Capture of Forts Clinton and Montgomery. 

responsibility, for lie had not received orders from General Howe of 
any description whatever. 

He placed his forces upon water craft of all kinds, and under con- 
voy of some ships of war, he proceeded as far as Verplanck's Point, 
about forty-five miles north of New York, where lie landed without 
opposition, the small battery upon the peninsula having been aban- 
doned on his approach. This was a feint to deceive Putnam, then 
stationed at Peekskill, five miles above, and it succeeded. Put- 
nam, supposing it to be Clinton's intention to push on towards 
Albany along the eastern bank of the Hudson, drew as many troops 
as could possibly be spared from forts Clinton, Montgomery, and 
one or two other stations, and assembled about two thousand men to 
oppose the progress of the British General. As soon as Sir Henry 
Clinton perceived that his stratagem was successful, lie put his 
plan into execution. He immediately passed two thousand of 
his troops over to Stony Point, on the west bank of the Hudson, 
leaving one thousand to guard the peninsula. Notwithstanding it 
was late in the afternoon, he at once commenced a march towards 
forts Montgomery and Clinton,* knowing their weakened state by the 
withdrawal of large numbers by Putnam on that day. The distance 
was about twelve miles, and the rugged pathway was over the pre- 
cipitous and almost inaccessible Dunderberg. f It was sunset before 
they reached the crest of this lofty mountain, yet they rushed forward, 
and, according to previous arrangements, attacked both forts at once. 
The garrisons were taken completely by surprise, for they could not 
believe that a regular army would ever attempt a march over the 
Dunderberg ; and the first intimation they had of the approach of 
Clinton's forces, was their actual precipitate descent of the mountain 
towards the fort. A desperate battle ensued, but the Americans,, 
overpowered by numbers, were obliged to yield, and the 
forts fell into the hands of the British. a Governor George 
Clinton was commanding in the fort that bore his name, and he and 
his brother, General James Clinton, together with a majority of the 
survivors, made their escape under cover of the darkness of nigliL 
The loss of the Americans was about three hundred men, among 
whom were Lieutenant-Colonels Livingston and Bruyn, and Majors 
Hamilton and Logan, who were taken prisoners. The British had 
about one hundred and forty killed and wounded. Among the 
former was the Count Gabrowski, a brave Pole, and one of General 

* These forts were situated amid the Highlands nearly sixty miles above the city 
of New York. They were separated by Peploap's Kill, a small stream that forms- 
the boundary line between Orange and Rockland counties 

t Thunder Mountain. 



246 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 

Obstructions in the River, and burning of American vessels. Destruction of Continental Village. 

Clinton's aides. He and Lord Rawdon led the British grenadiers to 
the charge at the beginning of the assault. 

Meanwhile, the fleet of the enemy attempted to co-operate with the 
troops, but a very serious obstruction in the river checked their pro- 
gress effectually. The Americans had constructed a chevaux-de-frise 
of great strength across the river, which is there about six hundred 
yards wide.* To make the obstruction still more complete and effl 
cient, a ponderous boom or iron chain was also stretched across the 
river by the side of the chevaux-de-frise. Another heavy chain was 
placed across the river at West Point. These combined obstructions 
were prepared at an expense of about two hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars. Two frigates, two galleys, and a sloop, were placed just 
above the chevaux-de-frise, and under the guns of the fort. These, 
the Americans who escaped from the forts, set on fire, to prevent their 
falling into the hands of the enemy, and they were burnt to the 
water's edge. That conflagration, amid the darkness of a cloudy 
night, presented a magnificent spectacle ; and when the fire reached 
the loaded guns, and at length the magazines, the scene was sublime 
to sight and ear, beyond all conception. The echoes of those 
detonations and final thunder-peals were awakened upon a hundred 
hills, and every crest for a moment glowed with a brilliant illumina- 
tion. 

A few miles higher up, and opposite West Point, was another 
strong fort, called Constitution, which the Americans, on hearing 
of the fall of Forts Montgomery and Clinton, abandoned, after 
demolishing a part of the works. Being thus in possession of 
the keys to the northern country, the British immediately set 
about removing the obstructions in the river at Forts Montgomery 
and Clinton. This being accomplished, the whole fleet passed up 
the river, and broke the chain at West Point.f All impediments 
being now removed, Sir James Wallace, with a flying squadron 
of light frigates, and General Vaughan, with a considerable number 
of troops, were sent up the Hudson, commissioned to mark their 
progress by desolation. A detachment of tories or loyalists, under 
Governor Tryon, was sent at the same time to destroy the flour- 
ishing settlement in Westchester, known as Continental Village, 
where the Americans had barracks for fifteen hundred men, 
and a large deposit of military stores.^ That infamous 

* A short distance above the landing-place now known as " Caldwell's." 
f It has been stated to the writer, second-hand from an eye-witness, that so 
strong was the chain, that the whole force of the British fleet, sailing up abreast, 
was insufficient to sever it ; and that the vessels all rebounded when they struck it, 
greatly to the astonishment of those on board. They, however, soon contrived to 
sunder it. 



CHAT VII.] 


EVENTS OF 1777. 


247 


Burning of Esopus. 




Retreat of Clinton to Ne w York 



enemy of republicanism executed his cruel commission most faith- 
fully. The expedition that passed up the river, burned every vessel 
that fell in their way, and with fire and sword desolated the country, 
and spread death and ruin among a peaceful and innocent population. 
They penetrated northward as far as the mouth of Kingston or 
Esopus Creek, and proceeded to the village of that name lying about 
two miles and a half west of the Hudson, where the Americans had 
a large quantity of stores. They cannonaded the place, and the 
people, without resistance, retreated. But the wanton barbarity of 
the troops pleaded for gratification, and the boon was cheerfully grant- 
ed — that beautiful village was fired in several places, and in 
a few short hours not a single house was left standing ! a A 
vast amount of provisions and other military stores was consumed. 

Not a word can be said in justification of these atrocities, for 
neither necessity nor utility demanded this destruction of life and 
property. And had the army of Clinton, after the first success in 
the Highlands, pushed immediately forward to the relief of Bur- 
goyne, instead of being engaged in these brutal expeditions, that 
General, with the remnant of his army, might have been enabled to 
retreat safely back to Canada ; and there might also have been a 
possibility of defeating Gates. It is probable General Clinton was 
unwilling to depart too far from New York and leave it compara- 
tively unprotected, and therefore took this method of drawing off a 
portion of the American troops from the north, sufficient to give 
Burgoyne a fair chance of success. This, is the most charitable 
view that can be taken of those wanton acts of barbarism.* And it 
is worthy of note, that at the very time Vaughan was committing 
these wicked depredations, Burgoyne was receiving from General 
Gates the most honorable and generous conditions for himself and 
his ruined army. 

Immediately after the surrender of Burgoyne, General Gates 
despatched quite a large number of troops to reinforce Putnam, and 
stay the devastating progress of Yaughan and Wallace. As soon 
as General Clinton heard of this movement, he ordered the immedi- 
ate return of the expeditions ; and having dismantled the forts, and 
destroyed all the places they had taken, in order to leave the river 

* General Gates, on hearing of the expedition of Vaughan, wrote a severe letter to 
that officer, complaining of the devastations on each bank of the Hudson, and the 
burning of Esopus, and concluded by saying: — " Is it thus that the generals of the 
King expect to make converts to the royal cause ? Their cruelties operate as a 
contrary effect ; independence is founded upon the universal disgust of the people. 
The fortune of war has delivered into my hands older and abler generals than 
General Vaughan is reputed to be : their condition may one day become his, and 
then no human power can save him from the just vengeance of an offended people." 



248 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1777. 

American loss of Provisions and Stores. Articles of Confederation. 

open for future operations, Clinton re-embarked his men and returned 
to New York, having completely swept the Hudson. 

This expedition of Clinton was extremely disastrous to the Ame- 
ricans. Among the seemingly inaccessible Highlands, a vast quan- 
tity of provisions and stores was deposited, in supposed perfect 
security. These were nearly all taken or destroyed ; and a hundred 
pieces of artillery, fifteen or twenty thousand pounds of powder, and 
balls in proportion, and all the implements necessary for the daily 
artillery service, fell into the hands of the enemy. 

During the year, Congress effected several important measures, 
all tending towards the maintenance of the declared independence of 
the United States.* It has already been stated, that as early as 
June, 1775, Doctor Franklin proposed a confederation of the States 
or Colonies; and on the eleventh of June, 1776, a committee was 
appointed by Congress to prepare a plan of confederation. The 
committee reported in July following, but the report was laid upon 
the table, and no more was done in the premises until 1777. During 
this year, the subject of a confederation was frequently discussed 
upon the floor of Congress, and finally, after various changes, the 
report of the committee of the foregoing year was adopted 
by that body on the fifteenth of November." Congress then 
resolved as follows : — " These Articles of Confederation shall be 
proposed to the Legislatures of all the United States, to be con- 
sidered, and if approved of by them, they are advised to authorize 
their delegates to ratify the same in the Congress of the United 
States ; which being done, the same shall become conclusive."! 

These Articles of Confederation were nothing more than pro- 
visions for a league of friendship, and for mutual aid and protection ; 
and so widely different were the conditions of the several Colonies 
or States, and so defective were the Articles of Union, that it was 
not until March, 1781, that Maryland, the last remaining State, 
ratified the agreement, and thus made the Articles of Confederation 
the Constitution of the country. 

Through the active agency of Doctor Franklin, in conjunction with 
Silas Deane and Arthur Lee, who were sent out in November, 1776, 
as resident commissioners for the United States at the Court of Ver- 
sailles, a treaty of alliance and commerce was negotiated with the 
French government. As early as the twenty-eighth of De- 
cember," these commissioners opened their business in a 

* Foi two vears the clenr-headed, patriotic John Hancock, presided over the delibe- 
rations of t'nat body, but his health requiring a relaxation from his arduous duties, 
he took leave of Congress on the twenty-ninth of October, 1777, and Henry Laurens 
was elected to succeed him. 

j See Appendix, Note VIII. 



chap, vii.] EVENTS OF 1777. 249 

Negotiations with the Count de Vergennes. Conclusion of a Treaty with France. 

private audience with the Count de Vergennes, the Prime Minister 
of Louis XVI. Congress could not have applied to the Court of 
France under more favorable auspices. The throne was filled by a 
prince in the flower of his age, and animated with a desire to make 
his reign illustrious. Count de Vergennes was not less remarkable 
for his extensive political knowledge, than for true greatness of mind. 
He had the superior wisdom to discern that there were no present 
advantages to be obtained by unequal terms, that would compensate 
for those lasting benefits that were likely to flow from a kind and 
generous beginning. Instead of grasping at too much, or taking 
any advantage of the humble situation of the invaded Colonies, he 
aimed at nothing more than, by kind and generous terms to a dis- 
tressed country, to perpetuate the separation which had already 
taken place between the component parts of an empire, from the 
union of which his sovereign had much to fear. A haughty reserve 
would have discouraged the Americans ; an open reception, or even 
a legal countenance of their deputies, might have alarmed the rulers 
of Great Britain, and disposed them to a compromise with the Colo- 
nies, or have brought on an immediate rupture between France and 
England. A middle line, as preferable to either, was therefore pur- 
sued.* 

What the French government did not think it prudent to do, pri- 
vate enterprise accomplished; and during the whole year, the 
Americans received more or less aid from France,! while the govern- 
ment was continually alternating between encouragement and con- 
demnation, according to the development of events. The reverses 
of 1776 sank the credit of the Americans very low, and much of the 
French ardor for the cause of republicanism was abated. But the 
battles of Trenton and Princeton, and subsequently the capture of 
Burgoyne, clearly foretold the ultimate success of the Americans, 
and the French government no longer hesitated. The Commission- 
ers of Congress were informed by Mr. Gerard, one of the Secretaries 
of the King's Council of State, that the treaty of alliance and com- 
merce which had been for some time under consideration, would be 
ratified ; " that it was decided to acknowledge the independence of 
the United States, and to make a treaty with them ;" and, on the 
sixth of February, 1778, Louis XVI. entered into treaties of amity 

* Ramsay's History of the American Revolution, vol. ii., pp. 62, 63. 

t On the first of December, 1777, the French ship L'Henreux, laden with arms 
and munitions of war, for the United States, arrived at Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire. Baron Steuben, a Prussian ofiicer, and one of the aides-de-camp of Frede- 
rick the Great, came passenger in her, and tendered his services to Congress, which 
were accepted, and he became one of the most efficient officers in the Continental 
army. 



250 



THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 



[1777. 



Conditions of the Treaty of Alliance. 



and commerce, and of alliance, with the United States, on the footing 
of the most perfect equality and reciprocity. It was declared in the 
treaty of alliance, that if war should break out between France and 
England, during the existence of that with the United States, it 
should be made a common cause ; and that neither of the contract- 
ing parties should conclude either truce oj peace with Great Britain, 
without the formal consent of the other first obtained ; and they 
mutually engaged not to lay down their arms " until the independence 
of the United States shall have been formally, or tacitly, assumed, 
by the treaty or treaties, that should terminate the war." Thus 
closed the year 1777. The future looked far brighter than it did at 
the close of the preceding year, and it was joyfully believed that the 
late successes of the American arms, and the alliance with France, 
would terminate hostilities ere another campaign should open. 




Washington's He ad-quart srs, a(, Morristown. N. J. 



EVENTS OF 1778, 




Marquis de La Fayette, aged 25 — Baron Steuben— Commodore John Paul Jones. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



'mm, 



HE American encampment at Valley 
Forge during the severe winter of 
1777-8, presented a spectacle for 
which the pen of History never drew 

j a parallel. A large army* was there 
concentrated, whose naked foot-prints 

j in the snow, converging to that bleak 
hill-side, were often marked with 
blood. Absolute Destitution there 
held high court ; and never was the 

• The whole number of men in the field was eleven thousand and ninety-eight, 
when the encampment commenced. Of this number two thousand eight hundrec. 
and ninetv-eight were unfit for duty.— Sparks (1 vol.), p. 256. 




252 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1778. 



Sufferings of the Americans at Valley Forge. 



chivalric heroism of patient suffering more tangibly manifested than 
was exhibited by that patriot band within those frail log huts that 
barely covered them from the falling snow, or sheltered them from 
the keen wintry blasts. Many were utterly without shoes or stock- 
ings, and nearly naked, obliged to sit night after night shivering round 
their fires in quest of the comforts of heat, instead of taking that 
needful repose which nature craves. Hunger also became a resi- 
dent tormentor, for the prevalence of toryism in the vicinage ; the 
avarice of commissaries, the tardy movements of Congress in sup- 
plying provisions, and the close proximity of a powerful enemy, 
combined to make the procurement of provisions absolutely imprac- 
ticable without a resort to force. But few horses were in the camp ; 
and such was the deficiency in this respect for the ordinary, as well 
as extraordinary occasions of the army, that the men in many in- 
stances cheerfully yoked themselves to vehicles of their own con- 
struction, for carrying wood and provisions Avhen procured ; while 
others performed the duty of pack-horses, and carried heavy burdens 
of fuel upon their backs.* Yet amidst all this suffering day after 
day, surrounded by frost and snow, patriotism was still warm and 
hopeful in the hearts of the soldiers, and the love of self was merged 
into the one great sentiment, love of country. Although a few 
feeble notes of discontent were heard, and symptoms of an intention 
to abandon the cause were visible, yet the great body of that suffer- 
ing phalanx were content to wait for the budding spring, and be 
ready to enter anew upon the fields of strife for the cause of Free- 
dom.! Unprovided with materials to raise their beds from the cold 
ground, the dampness occasioned sickness and death to rage among 
them to an astonishing degree. " Indeed, nothing could surpass their 
suffering, except the patience and fortitude with which it was en- 
dured by the faithful part of the army .''I Amid all this distress, in 
the neighborhood of a powerful British army, fearless of its num- 
bers and strength, and licentiousness,^ a striking proof of their 

* Mrs. Warren's History of the Revolution, vol. i., p. 3S9. 

f General Washington, in a letter to Congress, thus wrote : — " For some days 
there has been little less than famine in the camp. A part of the army have been 
a week without any kind of flesh, and the rest three or four days. Naked and 
starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity 
of the soldiery, that they have not been, ere this, excited by their sufferings to a 
general mutiny and dispersion. Strong symptoms, however, of discontent have 
appeared in particular instances; and nothing but the most active efforts every- 
where, can long avert so shocking a catastrophe." 

( Letter of the Committee of Congress, to Mr. Laurens, President of that body. 

§ It is admitted, even by English writers, that General Howe and his officers, 
during that winter in Philadelphia, abandoned themselves to idleness and debauche- 
ry ; while the soldiers were left to indulge their own social habits. 



chap, viii.] EVENTS OF 1778. 253 

American ladies in camp. Conspiracy against Washington. 

intrepidity in suffering was exhibited by the Americans. The 
Commander-in-chief, and several of the principal officers of the 
American army, in defiance of danger either to themselves and such 
tender connexions, sent for their ladies from the different States to 
which they belonged, to pass the remainder of the winter there.* 
Nothing but the inexperience of the American ladies, and their con- 
fidence in the judgment of their husbands, could justify this hazard 
to their persons, and to their feelings of delicacy.! 

It was an arduous task for Washington to keep together and sup- 
ply with provisions, that army of suffering men, and night and day 
his efforts were almost unceasing for their comfort and convenience. 
As a last resort, he compelled those who had withheld provisions to 
furnish them forthwith. Sheer necessity obliged him, in this in- 
stance, to treat the American tories with as little consideration as the 
English soldiery4 In the midst of these difficulties, jealous and 
restless minds had formed a conspiracy to tarnish the fair fame of 
the Commander-in-chief, to weaken the affections of the people for 
him, and to place the supreme command in other hands. He was 
attacked by anonymous letters, censuring him for his apathetic 
movements — his " Fabian slowness," and strongly contrasting his 
reverses upon the Delaware and its vicinity with the brilliant victory of 
Gates at the north. Most of these letters bore the signature of De Lisle, 
the authorship of which was never publicly known, but generally 
attributed to Conway, a brigadier in the army, who had been in the 
French service from his youth. The other chief actors in this con- 
spiracy, called " Conway's Cabal," were Generals Mifflin and Gates ; 
and it cannot be denied that several Members of Congress partook 
of the disaffection, doubted the ability of Washington to execute 
his high trust, and countenanced the scheme for his supersession. § 



* Mrs. Washington joined her husband at Valley Forge in February. Writing 
a month afterwards, to Mrs. Mercy Warren, the historian of the Revolution, she 
said, " The General's apartment is very small ; he has had a log cabin built to dine 
in, which has made our quarters much more tolerable than they were at first." — 
Sparks, p. 256. 

t Mrs. Warren, vol. i., p. 389. 

X In obedience to a resolution of Congress, Washington issued a proclamation, 
requiring all the farmers within seventy miles of Valley Forge to thresh out one 
half of their grain by the first of February, and the rest by the first of March, 
under the penalty of having the whole seized as straw. Many farmers refused, 
defended their grain and cattle with muskets and rifle, and in some instances burnt 
what they could not defend. 

§ Even Samuel Adams was suspected of unfriendly designs towards the Com- 
mander-in-chief. But there were never sufficient grounds to suppose that Mr. 
Adams ever harbored any disaffection towards the person of Washington; on the 
contrary, he respected and esteemed his character, and loved the man. IJut zeal- 

17 



254 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1778. 

Forged letters attributed to Washington. General Conway the actor in the cabal. 

Attempts were made, through persuasion, and flattery, and promised 
honors, to link La Fayette with them, but it proved a signal failure. 
The firmness with which the young patriot clung to Washington 
during this trial of the hero's sensitive heart, shamed the secret ene- 
mies and jealous rivals of that great man, and was mainly instru- 
mental in dissolving the cabal.* A pamphlet was also published in 
London, containing several reputed letters of Washington, wherein 
he was made to speak disparagingly of Congress, and express strong 
wishes for a reconciliation. This pamphlet was industriously cir- 
culated in America, but it had but little effect upon the public mind, 
other than contempt for the infamous forger. This was likewise 
attributed to Conway, who was a man of considerable literary 
talents, and was quite above mediocrity in military tactics. Like 
many others, the glowing promises of rank and influence, injudi- 
ciously made by the ardent Silas Deane, caused him great disap- 
pointment when he arrived and found that subordinate station was 
all he could command. He was appointed Inspector-General of the 
American forces, and yet saw no chance for preferment, except by 
a pathway over the ruins of the character and- influence of the 
Great Leader, and to this path heartless ambition beckoned him. But, 
finding his expectations not half realized, and being generally sus- 
pected of an identity with De Lisle, he resigned his commission and 
returned to Europe. f He was succeeded in office by Baron Steuben, 
whose great experience under Frederick the Great eminently quali- 
fied him for its duties, and in a short time, he introduced a system 
of tactics and discipline into the army, which met with the hearty 



cms and ardent in his defence of his injured country, he was startled at everything 
that appeared to retard the operations of the war, or impede the success of the 
Revolution ; a revolution for which posterity is as much indebted to the talent and 
exertions of Mr. Adams, as to those of any one in the United States. — Mrs. Warren, 
vol. i.,p. 393. 

* A new Board of War was about this time instituted, with Gates at its head. 
This Board, without consulting Washington, planned an expedition to Canada, and 
appointed La Fayette to the command, hoping thereby to win him over. By the 
advice of Washington, he accepted the proffered honor, and before starting for 
Albany he visited the Board at Yorktown, Virginia, for instructions, lie met them 
at table, and as the wine passed round, several toasts were given. Determined to 
let his sentiments be known, La Fayette gave, " The Commander-in-chief of the 
American Armies." It was coldly received, and perceiving the true sentiments of 
the patriotic Frenchman, they soon after abandoned the project, and La Fayette 
returned to Valley Forge. 

f Before leaving the country, he got into a dispute with an American officer, 
which led to a duel. Conway was severely, and as he thought, mortally, wounded ; 
and believing he should die, he wrote to Washington, expressing sorrow for his 
conduct, and concluded by saying, " May you long enjoy the love, veneration, and 
esteem of these States, whose liberties you have asserted by your virtues." 




SEAT ofWAR^S CAROLINA BATTLE OF GERMAtfTOWN 



chap, viii.] EVENTS OF 1778. 255 

Washington's firmness and patriotism. . Proceedings in Parliament. 

approval of Congress and of Washington, and which, for many- 
years after the close of the war, was used by the States for training 
the militia. 

The unworthy efforts of the secret enemies of Washington were 
like a viper biting a file. They only served to increase the confi- 
dence and affections of the people in and for him ; and his dignified 
silence while the waves of opposition were beating fiercely against 
him — a silence warranted by his conscious integrity, and the injustice 
of the attack, was a more fitting rebuke than words could have 
administered. Though deeply wounded, yet Washington's remark- 
able prudence too clearly perceived that a public defence would 
necessarily involve the development of facts which the enemy ought 
not to know ; and he chose rather to suffer contumely in silence, 
than to endanger the cause by a self-defence. 

Before proceeding to a consideration of the military events of 
1778, let us for a moment glance at the movements of the British 
Parliament. British statesmen, particularly those of the ministerial 
party, had, previous to the defeat of Burgoyne, deemed a speedy 
termination of the war an unquestionable certainty. But whe/i the 
news of the surrender of the whole British army of the north reached 
them, they were utterly confounded, and profound dejection marked 
the whole British realm. The pompous boasts of ministers, the 
confident tone of the King, and the high character of generals chosen 
to direct the war, had awakened the most sanguine expectations of 
a speedy peace, and hence the news of these reverses was as de- 
jecting as unexpected. Lord North was greatly alarmed, and he 
was obliged to listen to the thousand-tongued voice of public senti- 
ment in favor of measures to secure an honorable peace. Abroad, 
in all parts of the country, ministers were censured ; and in Parlia- 
ment, the opposition were more vehement than ever. In the House 
of Lords, the indignant eloquence of Chatham when he commented 
upon the employment of German troops, had a powerful effect. 
" You may swell," said he, " every expense, and every effort still 
more extravagantly ; pile and accumulate every assistance you can 
buy or borrow ; traffic and barter with every little, pitiful German 
prince, that sells and sends his subjects to the shambles of a foreign 
power : your efforts are for ever vain and impotent — doubly so from 
this mercenary aid on which you rely ; for it irritates to an incurable 
resentment the minds of your enemies — to overrun them with the 
mercenary sons of rapine and plunder ; devoting them and their 
possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty ! If I were an Ame- 
rican, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my 
country, I never would lay down my arms — never — never — never !" 



256 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1778. 

Concessions of Ministers. t Virtual Declaration of War against France. 

In the lower House, both Lords North and Germaine were assailed 
with equal violence, and the latter with not a little severe ridicule. 
Burke compared North to the " pigmy physician" who was set to 
watch over the health of Sancho Panza ; while Fox, by a more apt 
illustration, compared Lord George Germaine, the Secretary of War, 
and chief director of American affairs, to Doctor Sangrado, whose 
grand and only remedy was to bleed. " Bleeding," said he, " has 
been his only prescription. For two years that he has presided over 
American affairs, the most violent scalping, tomahawking measures 
have been pursued. If a people, deprived of their ancient rights, 
have grown tumultuous — bleed them ! If they are attacked with a 
spirit of insurrection — bleed them ! If their fever should rise into 
rebellion — bleed them ! cries this State physician : more blood : 
more blood : still more blood !" 
i77g On the seventeenth of February, 3 Lord North produced a 

conciliatory plan, included in two bills, by which England 
virtually conceded all that had been the cause of controversy be- 
tween the two countries. In fact, more was offered than the Colo- 
nies had ever asked or desired before the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. The right of taxation was to be renounced ; the violated con- 
stitutions were to be restored ; every act since 1763 was to be 
abrogated, except such as were manifestly beneficial to the Colonies ; 
and in the course of his speech in support of his plan, Lord North 
recommended that Congress should be treated with as a legal body. 
This renunciation by ministers of all their high pretensions to abso- 
lute sovereignty over the American Colonies, was a signal triumph 
for the opposition, who, for thirteen years, had battled manfully for 
American liberty upon the floor of Parliament. The bills passed 
rapidly through both Houses, and received the roval signa- 

* March 11. r . J ° J b 

ture. 6 

On the seventeenth of March, Parliament was informed of the 
treaty between the United States and France. The British Minister 
at that Court was immediately recalled ; the French Ambassador in 
London received his passports at the same time, and thus war was 
virtually declared between the two countries. In the meanwhile, 
commissioners had been sent to America with proposals for an 
amicable adjustment of all difficulties. 

Many of the opposition now advocated the acknowledgment of 
American Independence ; but Chatham, with all his fervor in the 
cause of freedom for the Americans to the fullest extent known in 
the British constitution, could not brook the thought of a dismem- 
berment of that mighty empire, which he had been so instrumental 



chap, viii.] EVENTS OF 1778. 257 

The last speech of William Pitt in Parliament. Arrival of British Commissioners in America. 

in widely extending. He appeared in the House of Lords," . 

and taking his hand from his crutch, he raised it and ex- 
claimed, " I thank God that I have been enabled to come here this 
day to perform my duty, and to speak on a subject that has so deeply 
impressed my mind. I am old and infirm ; I have one foot, more 
than one foot, in the grave ; I am risen from my bed, to stand up in 
the cause of my country — perhaps never again to speak in this 
House.* I rejoice that the grave has not closed over me ; that I am 
still alive to lift up my voice against the dismemberment of this 
ancient and most noble monarchy. Shall this great kingdom, that 
has survived the Danish depredators, the Scottish invaders, and the 
Norman conquest ; that has stood the threatened invasion of the 
Spanish Armada, now fall prostrate before the house of Bourbon ? 
Surely, my Lords, this nation is no longer what it was ! Shall a 
people, that fifteen years ago were the terror of the world, now stoop 
so low as to tell their ancient, inveterate enemy — ' take all we have, 
only give us peace !' It is impossible ! In God's name, if it is 
absolutely necessary to declare either for peace or war, and the 
former cannot be preserved with honor, why is not the latter com- 
menced without hesitation ? I am not, I confess, well informed of 
the resources of this kingdom ; but I trust it has still sufficient to 
maintain its just rights, though I know them not. But, my Lords, 

any state is better than despair Let us at least make one effort ; 

and if we must fall, let us fall like men." The proposition to 
acknowledge the independence of the United States was negatived 
by a large majority. 

The British Commissioners! landed at Philadelphia about the first 
of June, and sent to Congress copies of their commission, the acts 
of Parliament in reference to their appointment, and the terms they 
were instructed to offer. These were referred to a committee of 
five, and when they reported, the President was directed to reply to 
the Commissioners, and inform them that the preliminaries to any 
negotiation with Great Britain on the subject must be the withdrawal 
of her fleets and armies. The Commissioners made a second, but 
unsuccessful attempt at negotiation, and also made public declara- 
tions, but these were derided. Finally, they attempted to win some 

* This was the last speech he ever made in that House. In the course of his 
address, when excited to the highest degree of eloquence, he was suddenly seized 
with illness of an apoplectic character, and he would have fallen to the floor had 
not some members caught him in their arms. The House was in great confusion : 
all pressed round with anxious solicitude, and the debate closed without another 
word. He was removed to his residence, where he expired on the eleventh of 
May, in the seventieth year of his age. 

t Earl Carlisle, Governor Johnstone, and William Eden 



258 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1778. 

Reception of the Treaty with France. R cull of General Sir William Howe. 

of the Members of Congress over to the British interest, by large 
bribes,* but they were not only foiled in this, but the effort created 
universal indignation. Congress at once resolved to hold no further 
communication ; and the Commissioners, after attempting to affect 
the people by addresses and proclamations, returned to England. 

A few weeks previous to this, the French frigate " La Sensible," 
arrived in Casco Bay, bearing the joyful tidings to the Americans, in 
an official form, of the treaty concluded between the United States 
and France, and also the intelligence that other European powers 
were favorably inclined to the Republican cause. Congress was 
immediately convened, t and the treaties were ratified as soon as 
read. Congress also issued a proclamation, embodying the various 
foreign documents they had received, touching the independence of 
America. It spoke of the treaty of commerce and alliance with 
France, and asserted that the Emperor of Germany, and the Kings 
of Spain and Prussia were determined to support the Americans ; 
that armies and fleets from France were preparing to come, — per- 
haps were on their way — to America, and that ample strength would 
be vouchsafed them for absolute success in the next campaign. 
This proclamation, and an energetic address which Congress sent 
forth, produced universal joy, and the people were anxious to see 
the next campaign open, which they fondly hoped would be a short 
one. They rejoiced in the prospect of seeing the Sword exchanged 
for the Olive-branch of Peace, and obedience to a transatlantic 
monarch and a partial legislature, substituted by self-sovereignly 
and just and equal representation. 

Early in the spring, General Howe requested his recall, which 
request was immediately granted, and on the eighteenth of May his 
officers gave him a great fete, as a " leave-taking." The pompous 
and contemptible show on that occasion, was a fit finale to the dis- 
graceful scenes in which Howe and his officers had borne a con- 
spicuous part during the winter in Philadelphia.} This fete was 

* The President (Henry Laurens), Joseph Reed, Francis Dana, Robert Morris, 
and others, were thus approached. General Reed was offered ten thousand pounds 
sterling and the most valuable .office in the Colonies, if he would exert his abilities 
to promote a reconciliation. To this base proposition he replied : — " I am not worth 
purchasing ; but such as I am, the King of Great Britain is not rich enough to buy 
me." 

f It was Saturday afternoon, and Congress had adjourned to ten o'clock Monday 
morning. The despatches were brought by Simeon Deane, brother of Silas, the 
American Commissioner, and the Members of Congress were called together, and 
the despatches opened and read. — See Journals of Congress, vol. iv., p. 255. 

X Stedman, a British officer under Cornwallis, says : " During the winter a very 
unfortunate inattention was shown to the feelings of the inhabitants, whose satis- 
faction should have been vigiLantlv consulted, both from gratitude and from inte- 



chap, via.] EVENTS OF 1778. 259 

Sir Henry Clinton called to the chief command. Grand Fete in honor of the Howes. 

called a Mischianza, an Italian word, signifying a medley, and is 
said to have exceeded in magnificence of exhibition even those of 
Louis XIV.* Six days after the fete Sir William Howe 

. a May 24. 

took his departure, and at the same time, Sir Henry Clinton 
arrived from New York to assume the chief command. He was 
instructed by his government to evacuate Philadelphia, and concen- 
trate all his forces at New York, Philadelphia being deemed a 
disadvantageous position, being so far inland, and liable to be block- 
aded by the expected French fleets. He immediately set about the 
execution of this order, but in a very secret manner, so as to conceal 
from Washington, at Valley Forge, his real designs. But the vigi- 
lance of the American chief soon discovered the movement ; 
and he sent out from Valley Forge" a detachment of two thou- 
sand men, under General La Fayette, to cover the country between 

rest. They experienced many of the horrors of civil war. The soldiers insulted 
and plundered them ; and their houses were occupied as barracks without any 
compensation. Some of the first families were compelled to receive into their 
habitations individual officers, who were even indecent enough to introduce their 
mistresses into the mansions of their hospitable entertainers. Gaming of every 
description was allowed, and officers and soldiers were debased by their vicious 
habits." In view of these things, Dr. Franklin remarked, that Howe had not 
taken Philadelphia, but Philadelphia Howe. 

* In the Annual (British) Register for 177S, is a minute description of this 
Mischianza, occupying thirteen columns, said to have been written by the unfor- 
tunate Major Andre, who was present on the occasion, from which we gather the 
following : A grand regatta on the Delaware began the entertainment, with all the 
bands on shore playing " God save the King." All the colors of the army were 
arranged in a grand avenue three hundred feet long, and lined with the King's 
troops, with two principal arches, for the two brothers (the Admiral and General), to 
march along in pompous procession, followed by a numerous train of attendants ; 
with seven silken Knights of the Blended Rose, and seven more of the Burning 
Mountain ; and fourteen damsels dressed in the Turkish fashion ; each knight bear- 
ing an appropriate motto, in allusion to the damsel of his choice. After this 
procession followed a tilt, or tournament, in which Lord Cathcart acted the part of 
chief knight, his device being Cupid riding on a lion ; his motto, " Surmounted by 
Love ;" and the lady he professed to honor, Miss Auchmuty, of Philadelphia. This 
was followed by a ball, not omitting the faro table ! After this a magnificent sup- 
per, where there were four hundred and thirty covers, and twelve hundred dishes. 
Twenty-four black slaves in oriental costume, with silver collars and armlets, were 
ranged in two lines, and bent themselves to the earth as the General and Admiral 
approached the table. The evening closed with healths to the King, Queen, and 
royal family, and a grand flourish of trumpets. Paine, in one of the numbers of 
his paper called the " Crisis," gave a laughable account of this farce. Alluding to 
General Howe, he says, " He bounces off, with his bombs and burning hearts set 
upon the pillars of his triumphant arch, which at the proper time of the show, burst 
out with a shower of squibs and crackers, and other fire-works, to the delight and 
amazement of Miss Craig, Miss Chew, Miss Redman, and all the other Misses 
dressed out as the fair damsels of the Blended Rose, and of the Burning Mountain, 
for this farce of knight-errantry." How strange that such sensible men as these 
two commanders were, should have consented to receive such gross adulation. 



260 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1778. 

Evacuation of Philadelphia by the British. The British pursued by the Americans. 

the Delaware and Schuylkill, to obstruct incursions of the enemy's 
parties, and obtain accurate information respecting their movements. 
La Fayette marched to Barren Hill, towards which the British sent 
a large force at night, and, through the negligence or perfidy of one 
of La Fayette's piquet guard, he was nearly surrounded before he 
was aware of the approach of the enemy. He quickly perceived 
and executed a most skilful manoeuvre, by which he gained a ford, 
and marched his whole army across the Schuylkill, with the loss of 
only nine men. 

Early on the morning of the eighteenth of June, General Clinton 
commenced his march from Philadelphia. The news of this move- 
ment of the British army was received by Washington while hold- 
ing a council of war with his officers, to determine the numbers of 
the respective armies,* and the chances of success in a general 
engagement. In the meanwhile, General Maxwell had been ordered 
to cross the Delaware, and act in concert with General Dickenson, 
who was in command of the New Jersey militia. As soon as the 
British army had crossed the Delaware, a detachment under Arnold 
took possession of Philadelphia.! Generals Lee| and Wayne took 
the road to Coryell's Ferry ; and six days afterwards the whole Ame- 
rican army landed upon the New Jersey shore, and marched to 
Hopewell, five miles from Princeton. The British army had crossed 
at Gloucester Point, and proceeded by the way of Haddonfield and 
Mount Holly, to Allentown, where, in consequence of the approxi- 
mation of Washington to his front, Clinton determined to keep him 
to the right, and took the road leading to Monmouth and Sandy 
Hook. He was greatly harassed all the way by Morgan's corps of 
six hundred riflemen hanging upon his right flank, while Generals 
Maxwell and Scott constantly galled the left and rear. 

At Hopewell, Washington called a council of war, to discuss the 
best mode of attack upon the enemy. The council was divided, Lee 
and others advising to avoid a general battle, but to harass the enemy 
upon flank and rear. Finding these dissentient councils an impedi- 
ment, Washington determined to act in accordance with the dictates 

* The number of troops at Valley Forge was about eleven thousand on the eighth 
of May, when a private council was held ; and the whole American force then in 
the field, including all the garrisons at other places, did not exceed fifteen thousand 
men. The British army in Philadelphia and New York amounted to nearly thirty 
thousand, of which nineteen thousand were in the former place. There were 
besides three thousand seven hundred at Rhode Island. 

f In consideration of his previous eminent services, and to allow him to recover 
from some wounds, and adjust some long accounts with Congress, Washington 
appointed Arnold to the tranquil post of military Governor of Philadelphia. Here 
was opened the first scene in the drama of his subsequent treason. 
t Lee had been very lately exchanged for General Prescott. 



chap, viii.] EVENTS OF 1778. 261 

Conduct of Major-General Lee. Buttle of Monmouth. 

of his own judgment, and at once sent forward between three and 
four thousand men to commence an attack, while he, with the rest 
of the army, remained a few miles behind, ready to support them if 
necessary. The command of this force was given to La Fayette 
and Wayne ; and General Lee, who was next in command to Wash- 
ington, was ordered with two additional brigades to join them. 

Perceiving these threatening movements of the pursuing Ameri- 
cans, Clinton placed his baggage train in front, and his best men in 
the rear, and with his army thus arranged, encamped in a strong 
position near Monmouth Court House at Freehold. On the morn- 
ing of the twenty-eighth of June, the British front began to march, 
intelligence of which reached Washington about five o'clock, he 
being distant six or seven miles. He instantly put the army in 
motion, and despatched the light-horse of La Fayette to make an 
attack. The British wheeled, and, under Clinton and Cornwallis, 
made a furious charge, which compelled La Fayette to fall back, 
much to the surprise of Lee, who was also advancing with about 
five thousand men. Lee at once ordered a retreat across a morass 
in his rear, to a stronger position ; but his troops mistaking his order, 
as he alleged, continued to retreat until they met the advance of the 
main army, under Washington, and thereby produced great confu- 
sion, no notice of the retreat having been given. Washington was 
greatly surprised and mortified at this unexpected retreat, and 
addressing Lee with much warmth, ordered him to rally his troops 
and bring them immediately into action.* Lee promptly obeyed, 
and the order of battle was restored in time for him to oppose a 
powerful check to the advance of the enemy, until the main division 
came up. 

Generals Greene and Wayne simultaneously attacked the enemy's 
front and left flank. The battle became general, and lasted till 
night. Intending to renew the contest in the morning, Washington 
directed the troops to lie upon their arms, while he, wrapped in his 
cloak, passed the night upon the battle-field. At dawn the 
next morning,* no enemy was to be seen, Sir Henry Clinton 
having silently withdrawn his troops during the night, and followed 
his baggage-train to Middlebrook. His position was there so strong, 

* General Lee was greatly irritated by the reprimand of Washington. His haughty 
pride was touched ; and the next day he addressed two offensive letters to the 
Commander-in-chief, demanding reparation. He was soon put under arrest, charged 
with disobedience of orders ; misbehavior before the enemy ; and disrespect to 
the Commander-in-chief. He was found guilty of all the charges, and was sen- 
tenced to suspension from all command in the American army for one year. He 
left the service, and never returned to it. He died four years afterwards, in Phila- 
delphia. 



262 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1778. 

Retreat of the British to New York. Arrival of a French fleet under D'Estaing. 

and so intense was the heat, and so exhausted were the Continental 
soldiers, that Washington deemed it expedient to abandon the pur- 
suit. This battle, although favorable to the Americans, was not a 
decided victory ; yet Congress viewed it somewhat in that light, 
and passed a vote of thanks to the commander and the army. The 
loss of the British was considerably more than that of the Ame- 
ricans. Four British officers, and two hundred and forty-five 
privates, were left dead on the field, and were buried by the 
Americans. The whole loss of the enemy was nearly three hundred. 
The American loss was sixty-nine killed. On both sides many died 
of the intense heat of the weather and the fatigues of the day. 

After the battle of Monmouth, the British proceeded to Sandy 
Hook, where Lord Howe's fleet, which had come round from the 
Delaware, was in readiness to transport them to New York, at 
which place they arrived at evening of the same day on 
which the battle was fought." While marching through 
New Jersey, Clinton's army was considerably reduced ; the loss at 
Monmouth being the least moiety. One hundred were taken pri- 
soners ; and nearly six hundred deserted to Philadelphia, where many 
of them had formed tender attachments during the winter. When 
Clinton reached New York his army had suffered a reduction of at 
least two thousand men. The loss of men was more serious to the 
British than to the Americans, for the latter could soon recruit from 
the militia of the country. Washington crossed the Hudson and 
encamped at White Plains, where he remained until November, 
when he retired to winter-quarters, at Middlebrook, in New Jersey. 

As soon as France, by treaty, had openly declared in favor of the 
United States, she promptly commenced the fulfilment of her agree- 
ment, by fitting out a fleet of twelve sail of the line, and sent them 
to America, under the Count D'Estaing. At the same time, the 
British government sent a fleet of about equal numbers, under Admi- 
ral Byron, to co-operate with Admiral Lord Howe, but both fleets 
were delayed by contrary winds, and did not reach their destination 
until months afterwards. The French fleet arrived first,'!' 
and proceeded immediately to the Chesapeake, expecting to 
find Lord Howe there, but, as we have already seen, he had pro- 
ceeded to New York.* D'Estaing immediately repaired to Sandy 
Hook, but feared to venture over the bar into New York Bay, with 
his large ships, and accordingly waited outside eleven days, with the 
hope of either encountering the inward-bound vessels of Byron, or 
that Howe might be hardy enough to attack him. On the twenty- 

* M. Gerard, French Ambassador to Congress, came with the French fleet and 
was landed at Sandy Hook. 



chap, vra.] EVENTS OF 1778. 263 



Siege of Newport. Refusal of the French fleet to co-operate, and retreat of Sullivan. 



second of July he weighed anchor and proceeded to Rhode Island, 
lo assist the American land forces in their efforts there to dislodge 
the English. 

General Sullivan was then in Providence with a considerable body 
of Continental troops, and he was soon reinforced by the militia of 
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Washington also 
sent a detachment of two brigades under La Fayette, who was soon 
after followed by a small force under Greene, making in all nearly 
ten thousand men. The British force in Rhode Island, under 
General Pigot, was about six thousand men, stationed principally 
at Newport. It was agreed to attack that place by land and water 
on the ninth of August, but on that very morning, Howe, with the 
British fleet, appeared at the entrance of the harbor. The French 
Admiral at once sailed out to attack Howe, who immediately put to 
sea, and soon both fleets were out of sight. 

The British at the same time abandoned some posts on the island, 
and Sullivan immediately crossed over and took possession of them. 
He then proceeded towards Newport, and on the morning Au r 
of the fifteenth commenced a siege of the place. During 
the siege* D'Estaing came into the harbor. A storm had * Aug ' 19 ' 
separated the two fleets before coming to an engagement, and botli 
were very much injured. The French Admiral sent word to Sulli- 
van that he could not aid him in the siege, but should proceed to 
Boston to repair, and to this determination he firmly held, notwith- 
standing the earnest entreaties of La Fayette and Greene for him to 
remain. Sullivan was obliged to abandon the siege and retreat at 
night. He was pursued by the British in the morning, and on the 
north end of the island a pretty severe engagement took place. The 
British lost in killed and wounded, two hundred and sixty men ; the 
Americans two hundred and eleven, of whom thirty were killed or 
missing. 

General Sullivan having received information that General Clin- 
ton with four thousand men was on a rapid march for Rhode Island, 
immediately commenced evacuating it, and in an admirable 
manner withdrew all his troops to the main land before 
the arrival of the British Commander-in-chief. 

General Clinton finding Newport safe, immediately returned to 
New York, intending to attack New London on the way, but was 
prevented by a storm. He detached General Grey to attack some 
privateering stations at Buzzard's Bay, where he destroyed seventy 
vessels and numerous store-houses. 0- After destroying much d g { 5 
property in New Bedford and Fairhaven, he proceeded to 
Martha's Vineyard/ and plundered the inhabitants of about eSeptr 



264 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1778. 

Predatory expeditions of the British. Dissatisfaction of the Americans with the French. 

ten thousand sheep and three hundred oxen, with which he marched 
to Clinton's head-quarters at New York. This General Grey was 
particularly famous for these plundering expeditions. He was more 
noted for stealthy seizures of property, and the murder at midnight 
of sleeping soldiers, than for manly courage in open daylight combat. 
Soon after his exploits at Buzzard's Bay, he was sent by Clinton 
against the village of Old Tappaan, on the west side of the Hudson, 
where, at midnight, he surprised a body of American light-horse 
under Colonel Baylor, gave no quarter, cruelly massacred a large 
majority of the privates, and carried away the officers as prisoners. 

Little Egg Harbor, on the New Jersey coast, a rendezvous of 
a sailed American privateers, was about this time attacked by a 
sept. 30. detachment under Captain Ferguson.' 1 Much shipping was 
b Oct. e. destroyed, and a considerable quantity of stores captured.* 
This same expedition surprised the legion under Count Pulaski, and 
made great slaughter, until the brave Pole came up with his cavalry, 
when the British retreated to their ships, and returned to New York. 

In September, the storm-beaten ships of the fleet of Byron joined 
Lord Howe, and both fleets, at the request of the latter, were placed 
under the command of Admiral Gambier. Lord Howe soon after 
returned to England. 

The conduct of D'Estaing in abandoning the siege of Newport 
was greatly censured by the Americans, and when he arrived in 
Boston, his reception was very cool. A general murmur of com- 
plaint of the inefficient co-operation of their French allies, was 
uttered by the American people ; and that alliance which at the 
beginning of the year held out such brilliant hopes to the struggling 
republicans, was nearly severed. The English Commissioners took 
this occasion to remind the Americans that the French were a faith- 
less people, and might not be trusted.* But these manifestations had 
no lasting effect, and the dissatisfaction soon subsided.! 

During the summer the inhabitants on the western frontiers suf- 
fered greatly from the barbarities of the Indians. But those tribes 
which ravaged the back settlements of Virginia were speedily de- 
feated by Colonel Clarke, an intrepid leader of Virginia militia. 

* The insulting language used towards France by the Commissioners excited the 
indignation of La Fayette, and he challenged Carlisle. His challenge was not 
accepted; the English Commissioner retreating behind official prerogative. 

f The disagreement which existed between the American and French officers 
at Rhode Island, gave the deepest concern to Washington. In a letter to La 
layette, who had communicated the particulars, he lamented it as a misfortune, 
which might end in a serious injury to the public interest ; and he endeavored to 
assuage the rising animosity of the parties, by counsels equally creditable to his 
feelings as a man, and to his patriotism. — Sparks, p. 2S0. 



CfXAP. VIII.] 


EVENTS OF 1778. 


265 


The Valley of Wyoming. 




Stone's defence of Brandt. 



He entered their country and drove all before him until he reached 
the British settlements on the Mississippi. At Kaskaskias he sur- 
prised and captured Colonel Hamilton, the British commander there, 
one of the most cruel employers of the savages which the enemy 
possessed. This expedition put an end to most of the outrages upon 
the settlers at the south and west. 

The beautiful Vale of Wyoming, Pennsylvania, next became the 
theatre of a dreadful tragedy. Through this valley the Susquehanna 
flows, on the banks of which the inhabitants of Connecticut had planted 
a Colony, many years before the Revolution. It became the most 
populous and flourishing settlement in America, and nowhere per- 
haps on the face of the globe existed a community of like numbers, 
where so much happiness, based upon public and private virtue, 
prevailed, as in the Valley of Wyoming. Industry and frugality 
were the great temporal characteristics of the people, and at 
the same time stern patriotism found a luxuriant nursery there. 
When the War of Independence broke out, Wyoming sent forth its 
youth, and during the struggle, it gave a thousand soldiers to battle for 
liberty ; and yet in the midst of that peaceful community, party spirit 
raised its unseemly head, and soon the animosities of whigs and 
tories became as strong there as elsewhere, separating families, and 
severing the dearest domestic ties. The republicans having a ma- 
jority, used means to restrain the action of the tories, and even 
expelled several of them from the Colony. This highly exasperated 
them ; they swore revenge ; they coalesced with their savage neigh- 
bors ; and, during the summer of this year, while nearly all the 
youths of the settlement were with the army, they resolved to wreak 
vengeance. Both tories and Indians lulled the inhabitants into secu- 
rity by earnest protestations of friendship, and thus they learned the 
correct state of the Colony, and caused the people to be less on their 
guard. 

Early in July, Colonel John Butler, and a celebrated Seneca chief 
named Si-en-gwa-toh,* suddenly appeared upon the Susquehanna 
with sixteen hundred men, about one fourth of whom were In- 
dians, and the rest tories, many of them painted so as to resemble 
savages. The alarmed Colonists, having a presentiment of impend- 



* History and song have universally connected the celebrated half-breed Mohawk 
chief, Brandt, with this bloody expedition. But the late Colonel William L. 
Stone, in his Life of that chief, clearly shows that Brandt was not present on that 
occasion. And in his " History of Wyoming," he says that he (the author) made a 
journey into the Seneca country, and pushed the investigation among the surviving 
chiefs and warriors of the Senecas engaged in that campaign. The result was a trium- 
phant acquittal of Brandt from all participation therein.— -Hist, of Wyoming, p. 192 



266 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1778. 



Terrible Massacre of the people of Wyoming. 



ing danger, had written to Washington for relief, but the letter 
did not reach him. On the appearance of the enemy the people 
appointed Zebulon Butler, a cousin of the tory Colonel, to the com- 
mand of all the militia in the settlement, amounting, at the four 
different forts they had hastily erected, to about five hundred men. 
The first fort attacked surrendered at once, and the second did so 
after a conflict. The women and children were spared, but every 
man was butchered. The people then all fled into the principal fort, 
called Kingston, where they might have defended themselves until 
succor arrived, had their leader been an efficient man. John Butler 
appeared before the fort, and promised Zebulon, if he would come 
out to a certain point some distance from it, he would propose 
satisfactory terms of accommodation. Zebulon went out, taking 
four hundred men with him, but on arriving at the designated spot, 
found no one there. He pressed onwards into the forest, seeking 
for his cousin, until he was suddenly attacked by an ambush, and a 
large number of his party were killed. He, with a few others, 
made their escape to the other side of the river. John Butler now 
returned and invested the fort, and to intimidate the inmates, several 
reeking scalps from the heads of their brethren, were thrown into 
the fortification. 

Colonel Dennison, left in command, seeing resistance useless, 
sent out a flag to inquire what terms would be allowed the garrison 
on surrendering the fort. Butler replied, " The hatchet !" Denni- 
son made all resistance possible, but having lost nearly all his sol- 
diers, he surrendered at discretion. The savages entered the fort 
and murdered every man ; and then, confining the women and chil- 
dren in the houses and barracks, set fire to them and consumed all 
within. The fourth fort and its inmates were treated in the same 
way, and then those savage butchers proceeded with fire and sword 
to devastate the country. The crops of every kind were consumed, 
granaries and dwellings were reduced to ashes, and that valley which 
a few weeks previously presented an image of Paradise, now exhi- 
bited the blackness of solitary desolation — the foot-prints of the 
arch ruler of Pandemonium. 

This destruction of Wyoming made a shudder of horror run 
through the States, and a retaliatory step was soon taken. Wash- 
ington sent Morgan's rifle corps, and some regiments besides, who 
rushed upon the Indian settlements, laid waste their fields, burned 
' their villages, and drove them like chaff before the wind, 
far back into the wilderness. Early the following spring a 
similar expedition, under Colonel Clarke, was sent against the Cana- 
dian and tory settlements west of the Alleghanies. The affrighted 



chap, viti.] EVENTS OF 1778. 267 



Attack of Indians and Tories upon Cherry Valley. Depredations on the southern frontier. 

tories eagerly swore allegiance to the United States, while the hostile 
savages upon the Ohio and Wabash were attacked, and their whole 
country desolated. It was a fearful retaliation, hardly justified even 
by the powerful argument presented by the scene of horrors at 
Wyoming. 

In November," a band of tories, British regulars and 

xt i ■ ■ r i -IT7- • ^ a Nov. 11, 12. 

Indians, attempted a repetition ot the Wyoming tragedy 
upon the settlement at Cherry Valley, in New York. They took 
the settlement by surprise, killed many of the inhabitants, and quite 
a number were carried into captivity, generally among the Indians 
at that day, a condition worse than death. The fort, containing 
about two hundred soldiers, was not taken, and its defensive power 
prevented a general slaughter of the inhabitants. These bloody 
Indian expeditions, and a few predatory excursions of regulars and 
loyalists, intent chiefly on plunder, are the sum of the closing military 
operations of the year in the northern and middle States. The arena 
of stirring events was transferred to the southern States, where, until 
the close of the war, the British conducted their chief offensive opera- 
tions. Sir Henry Clinton, with a large portion of his army, went 
into winter quarters in New York, and about the same time, Wash- 
ington encamped the Americans for the winter at various points.* 

At the extreme southern limits of the States, tory refugees and 
Indians made several predatory incursions during the summer, laying 
waste the western portion of Georgia, and cutting off the inhabitants 
in detail. A large body of these refugees penetrated to the fort at 
Sunbury, and summoned the commander, Colonel Mcintosh, to 
surrender the place. He gave them the Spartan answer, " Come 
and take it." This bold answer intimidated them, and they left the 
fort unmolested. Another strong party marched towards Savannah, 
but were constantly harassed by the militia. When they reached 
the Ogeechee River they found a force of two hundred patriots ready 
to defend the passage. Like the party that approached Sunbury, 
they prudently turned back, burned the village of Midway, desolated 
the rice-fields and other grain with fire, and carried off all the 
negroes, cattle, and other property of the planters. General Robert 
Howe, who had command of the Georgia militia and regulars, in 
retaliation for these incursions, which proceeded from East Florida, 



* Nine brigades, exclusive of the garrison at West Point, were stationed on the 
west side of Hudson's River ; seven at Middlebrook, in New Jersey ; and six on the 
east side of the Hudson, and at West Point, as follows : one at West Point, two at 
Continental Village, and three in the vicinity of Danbury, in Connecticut. The 
artillery was at Pluckemin. A line of cantonments was thus formed around New 
York, from Long Island Sound to the Delaware. — Sparks, p. 283. 

18 



268 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1778. 

British demonstration against the south. Battle of Savannah and defeat of Americans. 

marched a force of two thousand men into that territory with the 
intention of destroying St. Augustine. But he found a deadlier 
enemy there than British or tory soldiers, in the malaria of the fens 
and swamps, which carried off about one-fourth of his troops, and 
obliged him to make a hasty retreat. 

In November, General Sir H. Clinton despatched Colonel 

a Nov 27 -r . 

Campbell from New York with a force of about two thou- 
sand men, to operate against Georgia, then the feeblest of the States. 
Clinton was determined to change the plan of operations entirely. 
Heretofore, the subjugation of the States had been attempted by 
approaches from the North, but the defeat of Burgoyne so completely 
destroyed power in that quarter, that the British Commander-in- 
chief determined hereafter to commence at the south, and extend 
conquest northward into the Middle States. 

* Dec 23 Colonel Campbell arrived at Savannah late in December,* 
and six days afterwards effected a landing without much 
opposition, under cover of the squadron of Sir Hyde Parker. 
General Robert Howe was there with about six hundred Con- 
tinental soldiers and two hundred and fifty militia. He had a 
strong position, surrounded, except in front, by a morass, swamp, 
and river, which seemed impassable. But a negro knew of a small 
path through the morass, leading to the rear of the Americans, and 
by his guidance, a detachment of light infantry under Sir James 
Baird, marched to, and fell upon the rear of the Americans. Thus 
entrapped, they fought bravely and desperately, but were 
finally overcome.** Upwards of one hundred Americans were 
killed, four hundred and fifty-three taken prisoners, and forty-eight 
pieces of cannon, twenty-three mortars, the fort, the shipping in the 
river, and a large quantity of provisions were captured by the enemy. 
The remnant of the American army retreated into South 
Carolina ; and Augusta, and Sunbury, 6 soon after falling into 
the hands of the British, the whole of Georgia became in 
possession of the enemy. This was the only important acquisition 
which the British made during the campaign ; and at the close of 
this year, the two belligerent armies at the north occupied nearly the 
same relative position which they did at the close of 1776, two 
years before. 

During these operations upon land, our little navy, though still an 
infant in its nurse's arms, compared to that of Britain,* began to put 
forth its strength, in conjunctive operations with the French fleet, 

* Great Britain had at that time three hundred and seventy-three ships of all 
rates. 



e Jan. 9, 
1779. 



chap, vin.] EVENTS OF 1778. 269 

Sailing of the French and English fleets to the West Indies. Exploits of Paul Jones. 

which in November 3 sailed from Boston to the West Indies, 
for the purpose of attacking the British dependencies in that 
quarter. On the same day Admiral Hotham sailed from Sandy 
Hook, and was soon after followed by Admiral Byron,* with 
a determination to attack the French settlements there, be- 
fore D'Estaing should reach his destination. The two fleets of 
D'Estaing and Hotham sailed nearly parallel with each other all the 
way, mutually ignorant of their approximation. D'Estaing shaped 
.his course for Martinique, and Hotham for Barbadoes. Each fleet 
carried out a considerable land force, and for some time the contest 
was carried on among the West India Islands with nearly equal suc- 
cess. 

The American navy consisted chiefly of small armed vessels, 
commanded by commissioned privateersmen, and did much service 
about this time, not only along our coast, but among the West Indies, 
and on the European shores. A gallant engagement between the 
American ship Randolph, of thirty-six guns, commanded by Captain 
Biddle, of Philadelphia, and the British sixty-four gun ship Yarmouth, 
took place on the seventh of March of this year not far from the 
Bermuda Islands. The British ship was nearly disabled, when by 
some means fire was communicated to the magazine of the Randolph, 
and she blew up, destroying nearly all on board, among whom was 
the commander. 

The most daring naval enterprises at this time, on the part of 
the Americans, were planned and executed by John Paul Jones, a 
Scotchman by birth, but an American by choice. As early as 1775, 
when Congress designated a number of captains and lieutenants for 
a naval armament on the Delaware, Jones's name appeared at the 
head of the list of the latter officers. He was ordered to the Alfred, 
of thirty guns, then at Philadelphia, and there hoisted the first Ameri- 
can flag raised on board a vessel in the service of the Continental 
Congress. He afterwards had the command of the Providence, and 
subsequently, in the autumn of 1777, he took command of the 
Ranger, of eighteen guns, and proceeded to Brest, on the coast of 
France, where, after much adroit negotiation, although the treaty of 
alliance had not been completed, he obtained a salute for the Ameri- 
can naff, from the commander of the French fleet. From 
Brest he proceeded along the coast of Great Britain, 
spreading consternation wherever he went. Our space will not allow 
us to follow him in his bold career at this time. He made descents 
upon various places — with a few men spiked all the cannon of two 
forts, first securing the sentinels ; and, but for an accident, he would 
have burned two hundred ships in Whitehaven, in the North of Eng 



270 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1778. 

Honorable character of Paul Jones. Letter of the French Ambassador to Lord North. 

land. Off Carrickfergus he had an engagement with the British 
sloop-of-war Drake, of twenty guns, which had been admirably- 
fitted out for the express purpose of capturing the Ranger. After 
a severe action of an hour, Jones compelled her to strike 
her colors, and he carried her in triumph into Brest. * 

The day before this action, he landed upon St. Mary's Island, on 
the coast of Scotland, with the intention of capturing the Earl of Sel- 
kirk, who resided there, hoping thereby to enable Congress to obtain 
more equal terms in the exchange of prisoners. But his scheme 
was defeated by the absence of his lordship. Jones found it impos- 
sible to restrain his men from plunder, and they carried away all the 
family plate, which was afterwards restored by the noble commodore, 
for which he received a formal acknowledgment from Lord Selkirk.! 

Before . closing the record of events for the year, let us take a 
brief glance at the action of the respective legislatures of America 
and Great Britain. On the part of the British Parliament, we have 
but little to record having a direct bearing upon our subject, in addi- 
tion to the notices of transactions during the early part of the year, 
to which we have already alluded. The alliance between the United 
States and France had of course given great offence to the British 
government, and the manner in which that alliance was made known 
to ministers by the French Ambassador, was considered a direct and 
intentional insult.^ Whether it was intended to be so or not, it was, 

* He was absent from Brest about twenty-seven days, during which time he had 
taken two hundred prisoners ; and of one hundred and twenty-three men which 
were with him when he sailed, only two were left on board with him, the others 
having been distributed among the various prizes he had taken. 

t This affair has been greatly misrepresented by partial British writers. The 
anti-American editor of the " Civil and Military Transactions" department of the fifth 
volume of the Pictorial History of England, unjustly stigmatizes the noble character 
of Jones, by this brief notice of the event : — " He made a descent at the mouth of the 
Dee, near to Kirkcudbright, and plundered the house of the Earl of Selkirk. He 
carried off all the plate and other valuable articles."* The well-known fact is 
withheld, that he transmitted a communication from Brest, to the Countess Selkirk, 
in which he informed her that it would be his pleasure to become the purchaser of 
the plate when sold, and return it to her by such conveyance as she should designate. 
He faithfully performed this promise, though at great trouble and expense, and the 
plate was restored in its original condition. 

X De Noailles, the French Ambassador, was the uncle of La Fayette's wife, and had 
given that young nobleman much encouragement, when he visited him in London and 
opened to him his scheme for joining the American army. On the 17th of March, 
the Ambassador sent the following note to Lord North : — " The United States of 
North America, who are in full possession of independence, as pronounced by them 
on the fourth of July, 1770, having proposed to the King of France, to consolidate 
by a formal convention, the connexion begun to be established between the two 
nations, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed a treaty of friendship and 

* Page 397. 



chap, vin.] EVENTS OF 1778. 273 



Proceedings in the British Parliament. 



under the circumstances, too ironical to admit of any other construc- 
tion. It greatly incensed ministers, and the alliance awakened in 
the breasts of the people at large the slumbering spirit of ancient 
feuds which had so long existed between the two nations. When the 
notification was received in the House, Lord North moved an appro- 
priate address to the King. The opposition at once moved an 
amendment, requesting his Majesty to dismiss the ministry ! The 
original address was carried by a majority of two hundred and sixty- 
three against one hundred and thirteen. In the House of Lords the 
same amendment to the address was proposed, but negatived by a 
large majority. 

We have already alluded to the debates which followed, during 
one of which the Earl of Chatham was seized with his last illness. 
On the seventh of July Parliament was prorogued until November ; 
and the King, in his closing speech, declared that it was his uniform 
desire to preserve the peace of Europe ; that the faith of treaties 
and the law of nations had been his rule of conduct ; and, alluding 
to France, " Let that power," said he, " by whom this tranquillity 
shall be broken, answer to its subjects and to the world for all the 
fatal consequences of war !" 

When Parliament assembled on the twenty-fifth of November, the 
King, in his speech, proceeded directly to the conduct of France. 
" In a time of profound peace," said he, " without pretence of pro- 
vocation, or color of complaint, the Court of France hath not 

commerce, designed to serve as a foundation for their mutual good correspond- 
ence. His Majesty (the French King) being resolved to cultivate the present good 
understanding subsisting between France and Great Britain, by every means com- 
patible with his dignity and the good of his subjects, thinks it necessary to make 
his proceedings known to the Court of London, and to declare at the same time that 
the contracting parties have paid great attention not to stipulate any exclusive 
advantages in favor of the French nation, and that the United States have reserved 
the liberty of treating with every nation whatever, upon the same footing of equality 
and reciprocity. In making this communication to the Court of London, the King 
is firmly persuaded it will find new proofs of his Majesty's constant and sincere dis- 
position for peace, and that his Britannic Majesty, animated by the same friendly 
sentiments, will equally avoid everything that may alter their good harmony, 
and that he will particularly take effectual measures to prevent the commerce be- 
tween his (French) Majesty's subjects and the United States of America from being 
interrupted, and to cause all the usages received between commercial nations to be, 
in this respect, observed, and all those rules which can be said to subsist between 
the two Courts of France and Great Britain. In this just confidence, the under- 
signed Ambassador thinks it superfluous to acquaint the British Minister that the 
King, his master, being determined to protect effectually the lawful commerce of 
his subjects, and to maintain the dignity of his flag, has, in consequence, taken 
effectual measures in concert with the Thirteen United and Independent States of 
America " 



274 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1778. 

Speech of the King. Expedition against Canada. 

forborne to disturb the public tranquility, in violation of the faith of 
treaties, and the general rights of sovereigns ; at first by the clan- 
destine supply of arms and other aid to my revolted subjects in 
North America, afterwards by avowing openly their support, and 
entering into formal engagements with the leaders of the rebellion, 
and at length, by committing open hostilities and depredations on my 
faithful subjects, and by an actual invasion of my dominions in 
America and the West Indies." He alluded to the want of success 
in America ; the means that had been put forth to suppress the 
rebellion ; the complete failure of the commissioners to conclude a 
peace, and the evident preparations for hostilities which Spain was 
making. He closed his address by calling upon Parliament to put 
forth their utmost energies which the crisis demanded, assuring them 
that his cordial co-operation would always be extended, and informed 
them that he had called out the militia for the defence of the 
country. In fact, the King carefully avoided casting censure upon 
ministers for the late miscarriages in America, and, by implication, 
fixed the blame upon the commanders in that service. The address 
was warmly opposed in both Houses, and in the Commons, the King 
was charged with uttering falsehoods, — throwing " a false, unjust, 
and illiberal slander on the commanders in the service of the Crown ; 
loading them with a censure which ought to fall on ministers alone." 
Yet ministers were still supported by pretty large majorities in both 
Houses, while the war- spirit, renewed by the French alliance, was 
hourly increasing among the multitude without. 

After the reception and ratification of the treaty with France, and 
the rejection of the overtures and indignant dismission of the Eng- 
lish Commissioners, Congress, as we have before mentioned, 
arranged an expedition against Canada. The plan was an extensive 
one, and well conceived, and no doubt w T ould have been successful, 
had they possessed sufficient pecuniary resources to properly sustain 
an army sent on an errand of conquest into an enemy's country. It 
was arranged that one division was to proceed against Niagara and 
Detroit ; another corps was to be stationed on the Mohawk River 
during the winter, and to be reinforced in the spring by a powerful 
army, when Oswego was to be seized and the navigation of Lake 
Ontario secured with vessels built upon its shores, as had been done 
by both Americans and British on Lake Champlain ; and another 
corps was to penetrate into Canada by the way of St. John's on the 
Sorel, Montreal, and Quebec. The conquest of Nova Scotia and 
the re-occupation of the Newfoundland fishing grounds, were includ- 
ed in the plan ; in fact, it was designed to strip Great Britain of 



chap, vni.] EVENTS OF 1778. 275 

Washington opposed to the scheme for invading Canada. La Fayette's visit to France. 

every foot of soil she possessed in America. Congress relied much 
upon French fleets and armies to assist in this enterprise.* 

This scheme was not officially made known to Washington until 
October, and then it was coupled with a request that he should for- 
ward it to Doctor Franklin, by La Fayette, who was about to leave 
for Paris.f 

Washington at once perceived the utter impossibility of success in 
such an enterprise, and his sagacious mind clearly penetrated the 
covert designs of the French. He at once wrote a long letter to 
Congress, in which he entered minutely into the subject, and showed 
that the plan was impracticable ; that it required resources which 
were not to be had ; that it would involve Congress in engagements 
to their ally, which it would be impossible to fulfil ; and that it was 
in itself so extensive and complicated, as to hold out no reasonable 
hope of success, even with all the requisite means of pursuing it. 
He warned Congress to beware how they allowed France to have 
power to assume dominion again in America. " France," said he, 
" acknowledged for some time past the most powerful monarchy in 
Europe by land, able now to dispute the empire of the sea with 
Great Britain, and, if joined with Spain, I may say certainly supe- 
rior ; possessed of New Orleans on our right, Canada on our left, 
and seconded by the numerous tribes of Indians in our rear, from 
one extremity to the other, a people so generally friendly to her, and 
whom she knows so well how to conciliate, would, it is much to be 
apprehended, have it in her power to give law to these States."! 

The opinions of Washington had such weight with Congress, that 
they determined to abandon the scheme for the conquest of Canada 
until the evacuation of America by the British troops, which it was 



* It is supposed that the French officers were the earliest and most active 
movers in this scheme ; doubtless with the ulterior design of once again securing 
to France the territory she resigned by the treaty of Paris in 1763. From such 
motives La Fayette may not be considered as acting. He was warmly in favor of 
the plan, but his zeal was the offspring of patriotism and a thirst for glory. 
D'Estaing even published a manifesto, directed to the Canadians, reminding them 
of their French origin, and the happiness they had enjoyed under the rule of the 
Bourbons, and promised that all the ancient subjects of the French King in America, 
who should renounce allegiance to the British Crown, should receive protection. 

f La Fayette obtained from Congress a furlough to make a short visit to France, 
but was detained by sickness several months, and did not leave until late in autumn. 
He first asked permission to go and offer his services to his King in the war which 
he saw was inevitable in Europe, but Washington, knowing the value of his 
name, and feeling great affection and high esteem for him, desired that only a tem- 
porary leave might be granted him, and that he should retain his appointment in 
the American army. His wishes were cheerfully acceded to by La Fayette. 

X Sparks, p. 889. 



'276 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1778. 

Difficulties in the exchange of prisoners. Deterioration of Congress. 

believed would take place the ensuing spring. With this view, they 
shaped the plans of the next campaign, and again urged Washington 
to write to La Fayette, then at Boston, and to Dr. Franklin, in order to 
gain the co-operation of France in the conquest of Canada, after the 
close of the next supposed brief campaign. This pleased the 
Commander-in-chief no better than the former unconditional plan, 
for he had no hopes of the departure of the British troops as early 
as Congress anticipated. 

Having secured his army in winter-quarters, Washington obtained 
leave from Congress to go to Philadelphia, and have a personal inter- 
view with members of that body. He arrived in Philadelphia on 
the twenty-fourth of December, and, after several discussions be- 
tween him and a committee of Congress, the Canada scheme was 
wholly laid aside as impracticable.* 

The exchange of prisoners was a source of much trouble to the 
Commander-in-chief. Although Congress ratified the convention of 
Saratoga, yet, for various reasons, Burgoyne and his army were not 
allowed to sail for England according to the terms of that conven- 
tion. It was finally arranged that these troops should be exchanged 
for American prisoners in possession of the British. But the details 
of this arrangement presented so many difficulties, that it gave Wash- 
ington much vexatious trouble, and called down upon his head not a 
little censure from the enemy, when, in fact, the censure, if de- 
served, should have been laid upon Congress. 

There was another cause of great anxiety to Washington, which 
he felt more seriously at this time, than at any former period. The 
men of talents and influence who had taken the lead, and put forth 
their combined strength in raising the standard of Independence, had 
gradually withdrawn from Congress, till that body was left small in 
number, and deficient in the talent then so much needed. During 
the year 1778, the number of delegates present had seldom ave- 
raged over thirty, and sometimes it was under twenty-five. Some- 
times, whole States were unrepresented ; and it was seldom the case 
that every State had a competent number of representatives to entitle 
it to a vote. And never had party feuds and private jealousies been 
more rife in the council of the States than at this time, presenting 
a most alarming disunity at the very moment when undivided effort 
was specially needed. These internal dissensions threatened to effect 
the failure of the attempt of the States to gain real and acknow- 
ledged independence, and they filled the mind of Washington with 
gloomy forebodings,! not in anticipation of final defeat and ruin, for 

* Sparks, p. 290. \ lb., pp. 2S5, 286. 



chap, vni.] 



EVENTS OF 1778. 



277 



Preparations for the spring campaign. 



he was still hopeful and confiding in the arm of Providence, and 
conscious of the justice of the cause, but he dreaded the protraction 
of the war, and the consequent suffering and woe. Yet, while rely- 
ing firmly in simple faith upon the aid of Providence, he wisely 
acted upon the principle of Cromwell's injunction to his men when 
crossing a morass to attack the royal troops at Devizes, " Trust in 
Providence, but keep your powder dryP He early planned exten- 
sive arrangements for a vigorous campaign in the spring, and fearing 
that the British detachments which sailed from New York in Novem- 
ber, and had already captured Savannah, and in a measure dispersed 
the American forces there, might act in the winter against South 
Carolina and Georgia, by order of Congress, he sent General Lin- 
coln to take the command of the southern department. At the same 
time, the four regiments of American cavalry were widely separated, 
for the two-fold purpose of extensive observation, and a plentiful 
supply of forage for the horses. One was stationed at Winchester, 
in Virginia ; another at Frederick, in Maryland ; a third at Lancaster, 
in Pennsylvania ; and a fourth at Durham, in Connecticut. 




Fac Simile of the firat Money coined by the United States. 
(The metal looks like pewter.) 



EVENTS OF 1779, 




General Benjamin Lincoln— General Anthony Wayne— Silas Deane. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ONGRESS had the valuable personal aid 
of Washington for about five weeks in 
maturing plans for the campaign of 1779. 
I He held daily conferences with commit- 
t tees of that body, and suggested three 
U distinct plans, with observations on the 
method of executing them, and the pro- 
bable result of each. The first plan was 
to dislodge the enemy from all his posts 
upon the sea-coast, and prevent assistance 
from abroad ; the second was an offensive 
position, by attacking Niagara, and taking possession of the ports 
on Lake Ontario ; and the third proposed to hold the army entirely 




280 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1779. 

Defensive operations agreed upon. Continental paper money. 

on the defensive, except some necessary expeditions against the 
Indians and tory settlers on the frontiers, who had committed many 
and cruel depredations during the preceding vear, and thus, by 
severity of chastisement, deter them from the commission of like 
ravages. 

It was decided to adopt the latter plan, in favor of which there 
was a combination of good reasons. The chief of these was, that 
it would be the least expensive mode of operation, and this consider- 
ation was a serious one at that time. Never, since the commence- 
ment of the war, were the finances of the country in a worse state 
than at the beginning of 1779 ; and in this respect the future, from 
this point of view, looked gloomy indeed. Efforts had been repeat- 
edly made to negotiate loans in Europe ; but the political character 
of America was little known on that continent, and all the loans that 
were obtained were in comparatively small sums. The States there- 
fore had no other resource than to emit bills of credit, or paper 
money. In 1775 they issued three millions of dollars, and, becom- 
ing a circulating medium, these bills proved to be of great utility, 
being everywhere readily taken at par value. These issues were 
from time to time repeated, until, at the commencement of 1779, the 
amount had risen to over one hundred millions of dollars, and in the 
course of that year, it was swelled to double that amount. Taxation 
was not resorted to, until near the close of 1777,° when 

a Nov. 

Congress ventured to make a requisition of five millions of 
dollars annually ; but the States faintly responded to the require- 
ment, and the paper money was the only pecuniary means in the 
power of Congress to carry on the war. 

The necessary consequence of such an immense issue of bills of 
credit, was a depreciation of the notes to about a fortieth of their 
nominal value, and hence there was a miserable derangement in 
all mercantile and money transactions. The evil was aggravated, 
too, by inadequate remedies. The paper, at its nominal value, was 
made a legal tender for all debts ; and by this measure, which 
Washington deeply ^eplored, many creditors, both public and 
private, were defrauded, but no permanent relief could be afford- 
ed, for confidence 'was destroyed.* As the articles furnished 



* Rumors having been circulated that Congress would not redeem these bills of 
credit, destroyed all confidence in them ; and this effect caused that body to pass a 
formal resolution on the twenty-ninth of December, 177S, declaring that the said 
report is false and derogatory to the honor of Congress. On the thirty-first of De- 
cember, they adopted a resolution calling upon the States to pay in a quota of six 
millions of dollars, for eighteen years, commencing with 17S0, as a fund for sinking 
the loans and emissions to the thirty-first day of December, 1778. This was in 



chap, ix.] EVENTS OF 1779. 281 

Recruiting for the spring campaign. Opening of the campaign at the south. 

the army, like all others, rose to an enormous nominal value, Con 
gress, very injudiciously, fixed a maximum price, above which the 
articles to be purchased, should not be received. The consequence 
was," that at this stipulated rate, none could be got ; and the army 
would assuredly have perished had not this absurd regulation been 
speedily rescinded.* 

After completing all the necessary arrangements for the campaign, f 
Washington took his leave of Congress, and repaired to his head- 
quarters at Middlebrook, in New Jersey, where he commenced the 
work of recruiting without delay, as the term of service for which a 
large number of the troops had been engaged would expire in a few 
weeks. But the increase of the army was slow by this process, for 
the dissatisfaction arising from the unequal distribution of bounties, 
and the enormous value which the depreciation of the currency had 
given to labor, made it easy for the soldier, who followed war as a 
profession, to obtain more money in other pursuits than the amount 
of bounty and pay combined-! 

The belligerent operations during this year, were carried on in 
three separate quarters. The forces of Washington and Clinton 
were employed in the northern section of the Union ; the British 
forces sent south in November, prosecuted their plan of reducing 
Georgia and South Carolina, while the fleets of England and France 
combated among the West India Islands. 

As already stated, Congress despatched General Lincoln in Janu- 
ary to take command of some regiments raised in North Carolina, 
and to unite them with the remnant of the troops dispersed 1778 
by Campbell at the battle of Savannah in December. He 
took post at Perrysburg, 6 about twenty miles from Savan- * Jan ' 3 
nah, on the north bank of the Savannah River, and there, with the 
remains of General Robert Howe's forces, formed the nucleus of an 
army of operation. About the same time, Colonel Campbell, 
emboldened by the events at Savannah, and relying upon the nume- 
rical strength of the loyalists in that region, undertook an expedition 
against Augusta, the chief town of Upper Georgia, distant about one 
hundred and fifty miles from the sea coast. The people were 

addition to fifteen millions of dollars, asked from the States, to meet the expenses 
of 1779. — Journals, vol. iv., pp. 742, 746. 

* Pitkin, vol. ii., p. 155. 

t The infantry of the Continental army was organized for the campaign, in 
eighty-eight battalions ; apportioned to the several States according to the ratio 
hitherto assumed. There were four regiments of cavalry, and forty-nine companies 
of artillery. — Sparks, p. 294. 

% The Continental bounty was raised to two hundred dollars, besides land and 
clothing ; and in some instances, the bounty was even still higher. 



282 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1779. 



Full possession of Georgia by the British. 



intimidated, and great numbers took the oath of allegiance to the 
British Crown, and joined the ranks of the enemy. Several hundreds 
of tories, a large proportion of whom were men of infamous charac- 
ter, were collected under a Colonel Boyd, and like a swarm of 
voracious locusts, marched along the south-western portion of the State 
of North Carolina, plundering and appropriating to their own use 
every kind of property they could possibly carry away with them. On 
attempting to force their way into Georgia to join the royal troops 
under Campbell, they were met at Kettle Creek by a large number 
of whig militia of the district of Ninety-Six, under Colonel Pickens, 
and, after a desperate engagement, were totally routed . a 
Colonel Boyd was killed with about forty of his troops, and 
seventy of his men who were captured were tried and found guilty 
of treason — but five only were executed. About a month previous 
to this, General Prevost, with a body of British troops from 
East Florida, captured the fort at Sunbury/ the only military 
post in Georgia then in possession of the Americans.* Shortly 
after the battle at Kettle Creek, Campbell quitted the country to 
return to England, and Prevost was appointed to the chief command 
of the southern British army. Having now full possession of 
Georgia, which event was the extent of General Clinton's plan, 
Prevost determined to exceed his orders and make a demonstration 
upon South Carolina. He accordingly sent Major-General Gardiner 
with a numerous corps, against Port Royal, in South Carolina, but 
they were met by a considerable force under General Moultrie, and 
defeated, with severe loss. 

In order to encourage and support the tories, the British army 

extended their posts up the Savannah River as far as Augusta. 

General Lincoln fixed his encampment at Black Swamp, on the north 

, „ side of the Savannah River. He had been ioined c by about 

c Jan. 31. J J 

eleven hundred Carolina militia under Generals Ash and 
Rutherford. Lincoln's army consisted of about fourteen hundred 
men, making the whole American force in that quarter two thousand 
four hundred and twenty-eight, rank and file. 

Encouraged by recent success, General Lincoln sent a detachment 
of about fifteen hundred militia, and a few regular troops, in all, 
nearly two thousand men, under General Ash, across the river, for 
the purpose of driving back the enemy and confining them to the 
low and unhealthy country near the ocean. The British evacuated 
Augusta when the Americans approached, and General Ash followed 

* The garrison consisted of only two hundred men. The fort was captured at 
the same time that Campbell set out to execute the same mission. 



chap, ix.] EVENTS OF 1779. 283 

Battle of Briar Creek. Movements of Lincoln and Prevost. 

the retreating garrison as far as Briar Creek, where lie took post. 
He had not been there long before Prevost, who was posted at 
Hudson's Ferry, determined to attack him. So sudden were his 
movements, that he look General Ash completely by sur- 

„ tt i • -ii -iii " March 3. 

pnse. a He came upon him with about nine hundred men, 
a large number of them tories ; and, notwithstanding it was open 
daylight, so panic-struck were the American militia, that they fled 
without firing a shot. About one hundred and fifty fell by the first fire 
of the enemy, and a large number were either drowned in the Savan- 
nah River, or were engulfed in the deep morasses that flanked its 
margin. The regular troops made a gallant resistance, but, aban- 
doned by the militia, they were compelled to retreat before over- 
whelming numbers. General Rutherford together with about thirty 
officers and two hundred men, were taken prisoners, and so com- 
pletely defeated were the Americans, that when General Ash rejoined 
Lincoln he had only about four hundred and fifty men. The 
Americans lost seven pieces of cannon, and all their arms and ammu- 
nition. 

This victory at Briar Creek rendered the royal troops again com- 
plete masters of Georgia. General Prevost immediately began the 
re-organization of the government in that State, and employed every 
means in his power to win the people over to the royal cause. But 
the Carolinians in the meanwhile were not idle. They were defeated 
but not disheartened, and vigorous measures were adopted to assem- 
ble the militia and inspire them with new ardor. John Rutledge, a 
man of extensive influence, was elected Governor of the State, and 
he and his council were invested with dictatorial powers ; high 
bounties were offered and severe penalties threatened ; regiments 
of horse were organized; and so ardent became the zeal of the peo- 
ple, that by the middle of April, five thousand fighting men were 
gathered around the standard of General Lincoln. 

Leaving General Moultrie with about fifteen hundred men 
to watch the movements of Prevost, Lincoln proceeded P " 
with the main body of his army up the left bank of the Savannah, 
and crossed over into Georgia, near Augusta, with the intention of 
marching upon the capital of the State. General Prevost, whose 
army had been augmented by tories, having perceived the movement 
of Lincoln, put himself at the head of three thousand men, 
English, tories and Indians, passed the Savannah 6 and its * 
fearful marshes, and attacked the American camp, hoping thereby to 
induce Lincoln to return. Moultrie was assisted by the gallant 
Pulaski and his light-horse, but was soon obliged to retreat towards 
Charleston before a greatly superior force. Prevost, astonished at 

19 



281 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1779. 

Charleston summoned to surrender to the British. Retreat of the British. 

his own success, resolved to turn what was intended as a mere feint to 
allure Lincoln back, to some account, and at once planned an attack 
upon Charleston. Thus, at the same time, Lincoln was pushing 
forward on one side of the river to capture Savannah, the capital 
of Georgia, and General Prevost, on the other side of the river, 
was hurrying forward to attack Charleston, the capital of South 
Carolina. 

As soon as Lincoln was apprised of the march of Prevost upon 
the capital, he detached a body of infantry mounted on horseback, 
towards Charleston, and hastily collecting the militia of the upper 
country, crossed the river with his whole force, to defend the town. 
Moultrie, on his retreat, destroyed all the bridges upon the route, and 
this so delayed the British army, that it did not reach 

ay ' Charleston until the eleventh of May. On the following day a 
Prevost summoned the town to surrender. Governor Rutledge had 
arrived there previously, and Count Pulaski, with his Legion, was 
also on the spot. Batteries had been raised on the land side of the 
town. The suburbs were burnt down, and a great number of can- 
non were so arranged as to afford a strong defence against attacks 
from the interior. 

Governor Rutledge, in order to give Lincoln time to arrive, opened 
negotiations with Prevost for surrendering, and ingeniously con- 
trived to spend a day in the interchange of messages and answers. 
Perceiving the strength of the batteries, and apprehending the near 
approach of Lincoln, the British general wisely determined to with- 
draw his troops, and abandon the enterprise. He accordingly crossed 
the Ashlev River, and proceeded to the island of St. John's, sepa- 
rated from the main land by an inlet called Stono River. Leaving a 
strong division at Stono Ferry, Prevost retired with a part of his 
army towards Savannah. On the twentieth of June, Lincoln attacked 
the division at Stono Ferry, but, after a severe battle of an liout 
and twenty minutes, he was repulsed with a loss of one hundred and 
seventy-nine men. The British soon after established a post at 
Beaufort, upon the salubrious island of Port Royal, after which the 
main body of the army retired to Savannah. General Lincoln with 
his army took post at Sheldon, near Beaufort. 

The hot and sickly season having now commenced, both armies 
ceased operations, and nothing of importance was done in the south- 
ern department of the Union by the belligerent forces until 
the arrival of the French fleet 4 under Count D'Estaiug. 
The royal cause lost many friends during this southern campaign, in 
consequence of the bad conduct of the English officers and soldiers. 
Their career was marked by peculiar ferocity, and the negro slaves 



chap, ix.] EVENTS OP 1779. 285 

Brutal conduct of the Briti sh soldiery. British expedition against Virginia . 

were used as instruments in the execution of their plunders and 
wanton destruction of property. Not satisfied with pillaging, they 
spared, in their brutality, neither women, nor children, nor sick. 
Houses were stripped of their rich furniture ; individuals robbed of 
their ornaments ; splendid mansions burned to the ground, and even 
cattle were wantonly destroyed.* The heart sickens at the recital 
of the wicked deeds of the British soldiery in Georgia, and makes 
one " hang his head and blush to call himself a man." Indeed, 
during the whole war, the two armies exhibited a striking contrast 
in this particular. While the English exhibited a ferocious spirit 
towards their enemies, the Americans were constantly manifesting 
humanity and generous forbearance. This fact is admitted by Bri- 
tish writers. 

While these various events were transpiring at the south, Virginia, 
New York, and the New England States, became the theatre of 
predatory warfare. Washington had determined to act on the defen- 
sive, for reasons already stated, and the English wisely resolved to 
'confine their operations chiefly to the sea-coast. Sir George Collier 
had recently been appointed Commander-in-chief of the British naval 
forces on the American station, and on the eighth of May he entered 
the Chesapeake with a small squadron, having on board about eight 
hundred regular troops, and some Irish Volunteers, under General 
Mathews. The object of the expedition was to take possession of 
the naval station at Gosport, and to capture the military stores and 
shipping at Portsmouth and Norfolk, the two chief commercial cities 
of Virginia. Clinton was desirous of establishing a permanent 
post on the Chesapeake, from whence to make predatory incursions 
into the interior, or command the mouth of the rivers, and thus arrest 
the commerce of the Virginians ; but he dared not weaken his force 
at New York. The only defence in possession of the Americans 
was Fort Nelson, on the bank of Elizabeth River, and this pre- 
sented but a feeble barrier. The garrison consisted of only one 
hundred and fifty men, who, on the approach of the enemy, fled into 
a morass in the vicinity, leaving behind them all their artillery and 
stores. General Mathews took up his head-quarters there, and in 
the course of a few days made a terrible sweep, with fire and sword, 
of the whole neighboring coast. Public and private property was 
indiscriminately destroyed, and the most ferocious cruelty and devas- 

* The heaviest loss of property which the planters of Carolina and Georgia had 
to sustain was that of their slaves. Upwards of four thousand of them were carried 
away, some to the English West India Islands, and others were left to perish of 
hunger in the woods and swamps. 



286 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1779. 

Destruction of property on the Virginia coast. Capture of the forts at Verplanek's and Stony Point. 

tation everywhere marked the path of the invaders. Ports- 
mouth and Norfolk were captured, 3 and everything that fell 
in the way of the enemy was utterly destroyed. One hundred and 
twenty-seven vessels were taken or burned, and other property, to 
the value of two and a half millions of dollars, was scattered to the 
winds of heaven. After destroying the navy-yard at Portsmouth, 
with eight ships of war which they found upon the stocks, the expe- 
dition returned to New York, from which, altogether, they had been 
absent only twenty-one days. It was a Vandal-like expedition, 
unjustified by necessity or utility. 

A few days after their return to New York, Admiral Collier and 
General Mathews proceeded up the Hudson River with a fresh 
detachment of troops. They were accompanied by General Clinton, 
and the object of the expedition was to dislodge the Americans from 
Stony Point and Verplanek's Point, both of which places the latter 
were fortifying. The fort at Stony Point being unfinished, and 
affording small defence to its inmates, the Americans aban- 
doned it on the approach of Clinton, 6 without firing a gun. 
Clinton then formed a strong battery of heavy guns and mortars, and 
opened a destructive fire across the river upon Fort La Fayette, at 
Verplanek's Point.* In the meanwhile, a detachment invested the 
fort on the land side, and from the river it was battered by shots 
from armed galleys. Finding resistance vain, the Americans soon 
surrendered conditional prisoners of war. c This was a 

c June 1. . x 

severe loss to Washington, for, between these places, he had 
a most convenient communication for the two wings of his army on 
either side of the river.f These two forts also commanded the 
Hudson, and secured a free communication between the troops of 
New England and the central and southern portion of the confede- 
racy. Clinton, having left considerable garrisons at both places, and 
commanded the immediate completion of the fort at Stony Point, 
returned to New York, having lost only one man. 

In the early part of July, the infamous Governor Tryon was again 
sent into Connecticut with about two thousand six hundred men, for 
the express purpose of devastating the country. In such expeditions, 
and such alone, was Tryon employed, and generally his success was 
commensurate with his aspirations. With fagot in hand, and 
defenceless women and children fleeing before him, he was a brave 
soldier, and knowing his peculiar traits of greatness, General Clinton 
always employed him when anything particularly brutal in the way 

* This fort was very complete. It had palisades, a double ditch, chevaux-de-frise, 
abattis, and a bomb-proof chevalier, or block-house, in its centre, 
t The ferry was known as King's Ferry. 



chap, ix.] EVENTS OF 1779. 287 

Predatory expedition of Tryon into Connecticut. Burning of Fairfield and Norwalk. 

of pillage and incendiarism was to be performed, sure that the high 
trust was safely reposed in a faithful executor. 

Tryon landed at East Haven, and issued a proclamation, calling 
upon the people to return to their allegiance, and threatening destruc- 
tion to all who should refuse to obey. As a further inducement for 
the inhabitants to become loyal, he commenced plundering and 
burning the town simultaneously with the issuing of the proclamation. 
Having completed his work of destruction, he proceeded to New 
Haven, but was met on the way by a band of brave young men, 
principally students of Yale College, under Capt. Hillhouse, but 
they were soon driven back, and the enemy entered the town in 
triumph, destroying everything that fell in their way, artillery, 
ammunition, public stores, and an immense amount of private pro- 
perty, although the flame of the incendiary was withheld.' 1 aJuiyo. 
Proceeding immediately to Fairfield and Norwalk, he laid & j u i y 7 
both those places in ashes, 6 and before applying the torch, t0 12 ' 
the soldiers were allowed to enter the houses, break open trunks, 
desks, closets, and other places of deposit, and rob the people of 
clothing, money, jewelry, and every other article which their fancy 
or rapacity coveted, and at the same time abused the inhabitants 
with the foulest language. Some of the scenes enacted at Fairfield 
by Tryon's mercenaries, as appears by official affidavits, are almost 
too cruel and revolting for belief.* Having completed his work of 
destruction there, Tryon prepared to make a descent upon New 
London, but was hastily recalled by Clinton, who was either dis- 
satisfied with his mode of warfare, or needed his services on the 
Hudson, where the Americans were gaining advantages. 

The people of Connecticut felt themselves neglected by Wash- 
ington, in not affording them some protection from these predatory 

* Wanton outrages were committed on the inhabitants of Fairfield, who were left 
in the town, most of them of the feeble sex. Some of them, the first characters in 
the place, from a wish to save their property, and an indiscreet confidence in the 
honor of Governor Tryon, with whom they had been personally acquainted, and 
who had formerly received many civilities at their houses, risked their own persons 
and their honor, amidst the fury of a conquering enemy, on a kind of sham pro- 
tection from that infamous leader. The principal ladies of Fairfield, from their 
little knowledge of the world, of the usages of armies, or the general conduct of 
men, where circumstances combine to render them savage, could not escape the 
brutality of the soldiery by showijig their protections from Governor Tryon. Their 
houses were rifled, their persons shamefully abused, and after the general pillage 
and burning of everything valuable in the town, some of these miserable victims 
of sorrow were found, half distracted, in the swamps and in the fields, whither 
they had fled in the agonies of despair. — Mrs. Warren, vol. ii., pp. 14G-7. 

Tryon tried to defend his character against the just odium which his base 
conduct brought upon it, and boasted of his extreme clemency in allowing a single 
house to remain standing upon the New England coast ! 



288 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1119. 



Storming and re-capture of Stony Point by General Wayne. 



expeditions, but the prudence of the Commander-in-chief clearly- 
perceived how unwise it would be to divide his small army while in 
the immediate vicinage of a powerful enemy. Besides, he was 
determined to recapture Stony Point and Fort La Fayette, and thus 
efface the desponding impression of the troops and people, engen- 
dered by so many reverses. For this purpose he sent General 
Wayne, one of the most daring, yet prudent officers of his army, 
from his encampment among the Highlands at West Point, with a 
detachment to attack the fort at Stony Point. At the same time, 
General Robert Howe, with another detachment, was sent to attempt 
the capture of Fort La Fayette, at Verplanck's Point. The English 
had completed the Stony Point fort, and strongly garrisoned it. Its 
stores were abundant, and very formidable defensive preparations had 
been made. After a toilsome march of fourteen miles over high 
mountains and through deep morasses, Wayne arrived in sight of 
the fort about eight o'clock on the evening of the fifteenth of July, 
and, dividing his army into two columns, advanced without being 
perceived by the British. A vanguard of about one hundred and 
fifty men, noted for their skill and bravery, were put under the 
command of the brave Frenchman, Lieutenant-Colonel Fleury, and 
about half-past eleven o'clock at night, while the enemy were wrap- 
ped in slumber, moved upon the fort, followed by the main body, and 
at midnight the attack commenced. The garrison was soon under 
arms, and poured a destructive fire upon the advancing columns. A 
morass that covered the works in front, was overflowed by the tide, 
and presented a serious obstacle ; but neither the broad morass, nor 
the volleys of musketry, nor the iron hail of the artillery, nor the 
strong bastioned rampart, alive with brave warriors, could avert the 
impetuous attack of the Americans, cheered on as they were by the 
loud voice of Wayne, whose blade flashed at every post of danger 
and duty.* Before the British had fairly recovered from the first 
panic of surprise, the two patriot columns advancing from different 
points, scaled the walls and met in the centre of the fortress. The 

British, ignorant of the number of the Americans, immedi- 

iiiiri 1 • i a J ul >' ir- 

ately surrendered, and before dawn a the stripes ana stars 

floated triumphantly over the ramparts.t The number of prisoners 

was five hundred and forty-three. The enemy had sixty-three 

* General Wayne's head was severely contused by a musket ball, before reaching 
the ramparts, which brought him to the ground. Instantly rising upon one knee, 
he exclaimed, " March on ! carry me into the fort, for I will die at the head of my 
column !" The wound proved a comparatively slight one. 

f Colonel Fleury struck the British Hag with his own hands, and hoisted the 
American standard in its place. 



chap, ix.] EVENTS OF 1779. 289 

Abandonment of the Fort. Daring feat of General Putnam. 

killed ; the Americans fifteen killed and eighty-three wounded. 
Several cannons and mortars of various sizes, a large number of 
muskets, shells, shot, and tents, and a considerable quantity of 
stores, were captured. This was one of the most brilliant achieve- 
ments of the war. The commanding officers received the highest 
encomiums from Congress, and a grateful people poured out their 
praises upon them without stint.* 

At early dawn the next morning, Wayne, imitating the example 
of Clinton, pointed his guns upon Fort La Fayette, and opened a 
destructive fire. He expected General Howe with his division 
would be there to co-operate with him by attacking the fort on the 
land side, but was disappointed ; and Clinton, in the meanwhile, 
hearing of the attack upon Stony Point, sent a detachment up the 
river to dislodge the Americans. Washington had previously 
ordered Wayne to dismantle and abandon the fort when it should be 
captured, his chief object being the attainment of the ammunition 
and stores. Finding Fort La Fayette invulnerable to his shots across 
the river, Wayne, on the approach of Clinton's transports, ceased 
firing, and retreated back to the American camp. Clinton tried, by 
various manoeuvres, to draw Washington out from his mountain 
fastnesses ; but, failing in this, he placed a strong garrison at Stony 
Point, and returned to New York. 

The brilliant success of Wayne at Stony Point greatly embold- 
ened the Americans, and the British outposts which had been con- 
stantly harassed during the winter and spring by small detachments 
of the Republican army,f now suffered more than ever, and several 
daring achievements marked the American arms. Among them 

* Congress ordered three different medals to be struck, emblematical of the 
action, and awarded respectively to General Wayne, Colonel Fleury, and Colonel 
Stewart. Wayne received the most flattering notices from the eminent men, civil 
and military, of the country. Benjamin Rush wrote to him, saying : — 

" My dear Sir : — There was but one thing wanting in your late successful attack 
upon Stony Point to complete your happiness; and that is, the wound you received 
should have affected your hearing ; for I fear you will be stunned through those 
organs with your own praises." 

f During the winter, General Putnam was placed over three brigades at Danbury, 
Connecticut, and it was during his stay there, that his breakneck feat of descending 
a precipice on horseback was performed. Being at West Greenwich one day, he 
was informed that the infamous Tryon; of New York, with fifteen hundred men, was 
marching on the place, tie at once assembled about one hundred and fifty soldiers, 
and planting two cannons upon a steep hill, he opened a destructive fire upon the 
enemy. When he saw the dragoons about to charge, he ordered his men to retreat 
into a swamp, while he waited until they approached very near, and then suddenly 
wheeling, reined his horse straight down the precipice, where there were about one 
hundred stone steps, and thus escaped. He then sped on to Stamford, where ho 
found some militia, returned and chased Tryon back, and took about fifty prisoners. 



290 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1779. 

Capture of the fort at Paulus's Hook. Defeat of Lovell's expedition upon the Penob scot. 

was the capture of the fort at Paulus's Hook,* by a small party 
under Major Lee, a brave young Virginian. Washington instructed 
him not to attempt to retain it, after capturing it, but to retreat back 
to camp as speedily as possible. Before daylight on the morning 
of the nineteenth of July, Lee, with about three hundred Virginians 
and dismounted dragoons, reached the fort and took the garrison by 
surprise. Thirty of the enemy were killed, and one hundred and 
sixty were taken prisoners. The American loss in killed and wound- 
ed was about a dozen. Pursuant to instructions, Lee immediately 
retreated wilhout spiking a gun or demolishing a rampart, and, with 
his prisoners, arrived safely within the American lines. 

In June, a flotilla of thirty-seven sail, carrying three thousand 
troops, was sent from Boston against a British station upon the 
Penobscot River, which had been planted there to prevent an incur- 
sion of the New Englanders into Nova Scotia. General Lovell 
commanded the expedition, but on landing he found the 

a July 25. , \ ' . . i • i • , , 

works too strong to be carried without the aid promised by 
Gates. Before its arrival, Sir George Collier, who had recently 
devastated the coast of Virginia, appeared in the river with a squad- 
ron from New York. Lovell immediately re-embarked his troops 
and made a show of resistance, but finding the enemy pressing upon 
him with superior force, he pushed for shore, abandoned his vessels, 
and escaped. The flotilla was utterly destroyed, and the soldiers 
and sailors were obliged to find their way back by land through a 
most dreary wilderness, enduring extreme hardship and suffering, 
and many perished in the woods. 

The condition of affairs in the southern Slates, already recorded, 
claimed and received the earnest attention of Congress, and Wash- 
ington considered it necessary to send thither a part of his little 
army, although the whole, and more, were needed for the defence 
of the northern section of the Union. D'Estaing, who was carrying 
on offensive operations against the British in the West Indies, was 
solicited to proceed immediately to the American coast, to assist in 
the labors of the fall campaign. The French commander had just 
defeated the English Admiral, Byron, and being thus almost master 
of the seas in that quarter, and having an ally at hand t to annoy his 



* Now Jersey city, opposite the south end of New York. 

f Early in the year, a transaction took place in Europe, which promised at its 
inception to be of signal service to the Americans, not so much by direct aid, but in 
crippling the power of Great Britain. Spain, after hesitating a long time, and 
being anxious to recover Gibraltar, Jamaica, and the two Floridas, which Britain 
had wrested from her, at last determined to join the confederacy with France, and 
on the twelfth ot April concluded with her, for that purpose, a secret treaty of 



chap, ix.] EVENTS OF 1779. 291 

Sudden arrival of D'Estaing. Attack upon Savannah. 

enemy, he at once accepted the invitation, and early in September, 
arrived upon the coast of Georgia.* 

He arrived at Savannah unexpectedly, with twenty ships of the 
line, bearing about six thousand land troops, and captured by sur- 
prise, a fifty gun ship and three frigates. General Prevost, having 
his army divided into detachments along the frontier, was not pre- 
pared for an attack, but so promptly were his orders for a general 
rendezvous obeyed, that before the French forces could land and 
form a junction with Lincoln, the British were nearly all concen- 
trated at Savannah, the head-quarters of the General. On the 16th 
of September, D'Estaing appeared before the town with his whole 
force, and demanded its immediate surrender, which Prevost refused, 
having just been reinforced by Colonel Maitland. The officers of 
the allied armies, finding the place too strong to storm, after consul- 
tation, determined upon a siege, and for that purpose brought up the 
heavy artillery from the fleet. On the twenty-third of September 
they broke ground, but made very little progress before the first of 
October, when D'Estaing expressed his determination to leave the 
coast with his fleet, for more secure winter quarters ! He proposed, 
however, to assist in storming the place before departing. This was 
agreed to, and on the ninth of October the assault commenced upon 
the enemy's works by a detachment of four thousand five hundred 
men, French and American, who advanced through a marshy hollow 
to within fifty yards of the walls. They pressed forward with great 
vigor, crossed the ditch, mounted the parapet, and planted the 
American flag upon the ramparts. But in this exposed state the 
severe fire of the enemy caused them to fall back, with great loss, 

peace. She had repeatedly offered to mediate, but Britain steadily refused, because 
the acknowledgment of the actual independence of the United States was a condi- 
tion. On the sixteenth of June, D'Almadovar, the Spanish Ambassador, left Lon- 
don, after leaving a note containing a statement of grievances, and issuing a 
manifesto with eighty-six counts, declaring the necessity of reducing the maritime 
power of Great Britain. Letters of marque and open war followed the publication 
of these documents. As stated in the text, the Americans exulted over this event, 
believing that the power of Britain to carry on the war here would be greatly weak- 
ened by the combination. " But," says Murray, " she roused herself, however, 
mightily to resist this new aggression ; voluntary aids were poured in both by indi- 
vidual and public bodies ; and she showed herself able, not only to contend with the 
united navies of the Bourbons, but even to bring again into jeopardy the Independ- 
ence of her revolted Colonies."— Edinburgh Cab. Lib., vol. ii., p. 61. 

* As soon as Sir Henry Clinton was informed of the arrival of D'Estaing upon our 
coast, he supposed that he would proceed northward, and, with Washington, make 
a combined attack on New York. This idea alarmed him, and he at once ordered 
the evacuation of Rhode Island, where six thousand men were stationed, and drew 
the troops to New York. Stony Point, and Verplanck's Point, were evacuated on the 
thirty-first of October, and the garrisons taken to the city. 



292 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1779. 

Abandonment of the siege of Savannah. Departure of Clinton for Savannah. 

after a furious contest of an hour. During the height of the assault, 
the brave Pole, Count Pulaski, at the head of two hundred light- 
horse, charged at full speed and attempted to penetrate into the town 
and attack the British rear. Being at the head of his squadron, he 
received a bullet wound which proved mortal, and his men, seeing 
their chief fall,* wheeled and retreated in great confusion. About 
the same time Colonel Maitland issued forth with a mixed corps of 
grenadiers and marines, charged the broken columns of the besiegers, 
and drove them back into the hollow by which they approached the 
walls. D'Estaing, anxious to sail before the autumnal storms should 
come on, refused to join Lincoln in a second attack upon the city, 
and consequently the siege was raised and the allied forces retreated, 
— the Americans across the Savannah into Carolina, and the French 
on board of their vessels.! 

Sir Henry Clinton, informed of the success of the British arms at 
the south, determined to make that region his most important field 
of operations for the future, and planned the campaign of 1780 upon 
an extensive scale. He was more induced to make such arrange- 
ments because he had just received some reinforcements from Great 
Britain. Accordingly, leaving Knyphausen, with troops sufficient 
to defend New York against Washington, Clinton sailed* 1 
for Savannah, under convoy of Admiral Arbulhnot, with 
about seven thousand troops, where he arrived after a most tempest- 
uous voyage of nearly a month, losing some of his vessels by wreck, 
and all his horses, and at once began active preparations for the 
spring campaign. 

During the summer of this year, an expedition under General 

Sullivan was sent against the Indian tribes called the Six Nations, 

upon the upper sources of the Susquehanna, who, with the exception 

of the Oneidas, incited by British agents, had for some time carried 

on a sort of guerilla warfare against the border settlements. 

b July 21. to ° 

Sullivan, with about three thousand troops, left Wyoming 6 

and proceeded up the Susquehanna to Tioga Point, where 

" he was joined c by General James Clinton, from the banks 

* The name of Pulaski, like that of Kosciusko, is dear to every American, hecause 
he was a lover of freedom, and, for the same reason, both are revered by every true 
son of Poland. He seemed to feel intensely the sentiment, " Where Liberty dwells 
there is my country." When Stanislaus, King of Poland, heard of his death, he 
exclaimed, " Pulaski ! always valiant, but always foe to Kings !" Stanislaus had 
felt that bitter truth to his sorrow. Congress erected a monument at Savannah 
to the memory of Pulaski. 

f The French encountered severe storms, and arrived at Brest in a greatly shat- 
tered condition. D'Estaing was one of the victims of the guillotine during the 
" Reira of Terror." 



chap, ix.] EVENTS OF 1779. 293 

Sullivan's expedition against the Indians. Exploits of John Paul Jones. 

of the Mohawk, with about sixteen hundred men, making his effective 
force nearly five thousand. 

At Elmira, in Chemung county, Sullivan found a party of Indians 
and tories about a thousand in number (eight hundred savages and 
two hundred whites), under the command of Brandt, Butler, and 
others, who were at the massacre of Wyoming the preceding year. 
They were strongly fortified, but Sullivan at once attacked an 

J O J » a Aug. 29. 

them, a and, after a desperate resistance, the savages retreated 
back into the wilderness. Determined to chastise them severely, 
the Americans pursued them into the very heart of their country, and 
during the month of September, they desolated the whole domain 
to the Genesee River. They burned forty Indian villages, laid waste 
corn-fields, gardens, fruit trees, and every other vestige of cultiva- 
tion left behind by the flying Indians and tories, destroying more 
than one hundred and fifty thousand bushels of corn. This expedi- 
tion was a cruel one, and was hardly justifiable by any rule of right ; 
yet it presented one of those stern necessities — an evil of great mag- 
nitude, requiring a severe remedy to avert serious consequences — 
which the exigencies of the times called forth. It greatly intimidated 
the Indians, and for a time the frontier settlements had repose. 

While the opposing armies in America, and the French and English 
fleets on that coast and in the West Indies, were alternately victori- 
ous and unsuccessful, our infant navy won new laurels upon the 
coasts of the British Islands, under the guidance of the intrepid Paul 
Jones. During the summer, the American Commissioners at Paris, 
aided by the French government, fitted out a squadron,* the com- 
mand of which was given to Jones. In July, he sailed from L'Ori- 
ent, in the Bon Homme Richard, accompanied by his squadron, and 
made directly for the western coast of Ireland. He first appeared 
off Kerry, and from thence sailed round the north of Scotland, and 
appeared off the port of Leith. There, in sight of the inhabitants, 
he captured several vessels, and was preparing to lay the town 
under contribution when a heavy storm arose and caused him to 
abandon his design. He then directed his course towards Flam- 
borough Head, and when near there, he fell in just at eve- b Sept23 
ning* with a merchant fleet returning from the Baltic under 
convoy of the Serapis, of forty-four guns, and the Countess of Scar- 
borough, of twenty guns. Jones, who had been engaged during the 
day in chasing and destroying one or two vessels, immediately pre- 

* The squadron consisted of the Bon Homme Richard, of forty guns, the Alliance, 
of thirty-six guns, the Pallas, a French frigate, of thirty-two guns, hired by the 
American Commissioners, and two smaller vessels. 



294 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1779. 

Paul Jones's Attack on a British convoy. 

pared for an attack upon this convoy. About seven o'clock in the 
evening the battle began, and so near was the scene of action to the 
shore, that the heights in the vicinity were crowded with people to 
witness the dreadful scene. The conflict that ensued has scarcely a 
parallel in history, and was one of the most brilliant actions among 
the many for which the War of Independence is distinguished. 
Commodore Jones himself gave the following graphic description of 
the battle : — 

" The battle being thus begun, was continued with unremitting 
fury. Every method was practised on both sides to gain an advan- 
tage, and rake each other ; and T must confess that the enemy's ship, 
being much more manageable than the Bon Homme Richard, gained 
thereby several times an advantageous situation, in spite of my best 
endeavors to prevent it. As I had to deal with an enemy of greatly 
superior force, I was under the necessity of closing with him, to pre- 
vent the advantage he had over me in point of manoeuvre. It was 
my intention to lay the Bon Homme Richard athwart the enemy's 
bow ; but as that operation required great dexterity in the manage- 
ment of both sails and helm, and some of our braces being shot 
away, it did not exactly succeed to my wish. The enemy's bow- 
sprit, however, came over the Bon Homme Richard's poop, by the 
mizen-mast, and I made both ships fast together in that situation, 
which, by the action of the wind on the enemy's sails, forced her 
stern close to the Bon Homme Richard's bow, so that the ships lay 
square alongside of each other, the yards being all entangled, and 
the cannon of each ship touching the opponents. When this position 
took place it was eight o'clock, previous to which the Bon Homme 
Richard had received sundry eighteen-pound shots below the water, 
and leaked very much. My battery of twelve-pounders, on which 
I had placed my chief dependance, being commanded by Lieutenant 
Dale and Colonel Weibert, and manned principally with American 
seamen and French volunteers, was entirely silenced and abandoned. 
As to the six old eighteen-pounders that formed the battery of the 
lower gun-deck, they did no service whatever, except firing eight 
shots in all. Two out of three of them burst at the first fire, and 
killed almost all the men who were stationed to manage them. Be- 
fore this time, too, Colonel de Chamillard, who commanded a party 
of twenty soldiers on the poop, had abandoned that station, after 
having lost some of his men. I had now only two pieces of cannon 
(nine-pounders) on the quarter-deck, that were not silenced, and not 
one of the heavier cannon was fired during the rest of the action. 
The purser, M. Mease, who commanded the guns on the quarter- 
deck, being dangerously wounded in the head, I was obliged to fill 



chap, ix.] EVENTS OF 1779. 295 

Desperate fight between the Bon Homme Richard and Serapis. 

his place, and with great difficulty rallied a few men and shifted over 
one of the lee quarter-deck guns, so that we afterwards played three 
pieces of nine-pounders upon the enemy. The tops alone seconded 
the fire of this little battery, and held out bravely during the whole 
of the action, especially the maintop, where Lieutenant Stack com- 
manded. I directed the fire of one of the three cannons against the 
mainmast, with double-headed shot, while the other two were ex- 
ceedingly well served, with grape and canister-shot, to silence the 
enemy's musketry and clear her decks, which was at last effected. 
The enemy were, as I have since understood, on the instant of call- 
ing for quarter, when the cowardice or treachery of three of my 
under-officers induced them to call to the enemy. The English 
commodore asked me if I demanded quarter, and I having answered 
him in the most determined negative, they renewed the battle with 
double fury. They were unable to stand the deck ; but the fire of 
their cannon, especially the lower battery, which was entirely formed 
of ten-pounders, was incessant ; both ships were set on fire in 
various places, and the scene was dreadful beyond the reach of lan- 
guage. To account for the timidity of my three under-officers — I 
mean the gunner, the carpenter, and the master-at-arms — I must 
observe, that the first two were slightly wounded, and, as the ship 
had received various shots under water, and one of the pumps being 
shot away, the carpenter expressed his fears that she would sink, 
and the other two concluded that she was sinking, which occasioned 
the gunner to run aft on the poop, without my knowledge, to strike 
the colors. Fortunately for me, a cannon-ball had done that before, 
by carrying away the ensign-staff ; he was therefore reduced to the 
necessity of sinking, as he supposed, or of calling for quarter, and 
he preferred the latter. 

" All this time the Bon Homme Richard had sustained the action 
alone, and the enemy, though much superior in force, would have 
been very glad to have got clear, as appears by their own acknow- 
ledgments, and by their having let go an anchor the instant that I 
laid them on board, by which means they would have escaped, had 
I not made them well fast to the Bon Homme Richard. 

" At last, at half-past nine o'clock, the Alliance appeared, and I 
now thought the battle at an end ; but, to my utter astonishment, he 
discharged a broadside full into the stern of the Bon Homme Rich- 
ard. We called to him for God's sake to forbear firing into the Bon 
Homme Richard ; yet they passed along the off side of the ship, 
and continued firing. There was no possibility of his mistaking the 
Bon Homme Richard for the enemy's ship, there being the most 
essential difference in their appearance and construction. Besides, it 



296 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1779. 

Capture of the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough . Jones honored by France and the U. States 

was then full moonlight, and the sides of the Bon Homme Richard 
were all black, while the sides of the prize were all yellow. Yet, 
for the greater security, I showed the signal of our reconnaissance, by 
putting out three lanterns, one at the head, another at the stern, and 
the third in the middle, in a horizontal line. Every tongue cried 
that he was firing into the wrong ship, but nothing availed ; he 
passed round, firing into the Bon Homme Richard's head, stern, and 
broadside, and by one of his volleys killed several of my best men, 
and mortally wounded a good officer on the forecastle. My situation 
was really deplorable ; the Bon Homme Richard received various 
shots under water from the Alliance ; the leak gained on the pumps, 
and the fire increased much on board both ships. Some officers 
persuaded me to strike, of whose courage and good sense I entertain 
a high opinion. My treacherous master-at-arms let loose all my 
prisoners without my knowledge, and my prospects became gloomy 
indeed. I would not, however, give up the point. The enemy's 
mainmast began to shake, their firing decreased fast, ours rather 
increased, and the British colors were struck at half an hour past ten 
o'clock." 

The Countess of Scarborough was also taken by the Pallas, but 
the merchantmen escaped. Jones sailed for Holland with his prizes, 
and anchored off the Texel on the third of October. The value of 
the prizes taken during his short cruise of less than three months, 
was estimated at upwards of a quarter of a million of dollars. The 
French government publicly gave him thanks, and Louis XVI. con- 
ferred upon him the Order of Merit. Congress also honored him 
with a vote of thanks, and by their order a gold medal was struck to 
commemorate the victory over the Serapis. 

Thus ended the warlike operations of the year 1779. The main 
division of the American army of the north went into winter-quarters 
at Morristown, New Jersey, under the immediate personal command 
of Washington, and strong; detachments were stationed at West 
Point and other posts on the Hudson, and the cavalry were cantoned 
in Connecticut. The manifest designs of Clinton against the 
south, and the defeat of the Americans at Savannah, induced the 
Commander-in-chief to send a reinforcement to General Lincoln's 
army ; and before the middle of December two of the North Caro- 
lina regiments and the whole of the Virginia line marched to the 
south, leaving the main army in quite a weak condition. The 
scarcity of provisions, and the depreciated value of the continental 
money, soon threatened a total dissolution of the army. The soldiers 
were put upon allowance before the close of January, and finally, to 
prevent the catastrophe of a general rebellion, incited by starvation, 



chap, ix.] EVENTS OF 1779. 299 

Election by Congress of Ministers to Great Britain and Spain. The French Alliance. 

Washington was obliged to resort to measures similar to those 
adopted during the winter of 1778, at Valley Forge,* and thus he 
managed to keep his little army together. 

On the twenty-seventh of September, Congress proceeded to elect 
a minister to negotiate a treaty of peace and also of commerce, with 
Great Britain, hoping by that means to conclude the war and 
establish the independence of the States through the instrumentality 
of diplomacy, rather than shed more blood. John Adams was 
elected to this important office, and immediately proceeded to enter 
upon its duties.! John Jay was elected the same day minister to 
Spain, for general negotiations and for the special purpose of con- 
cluding some definite adjustment of boundaries between the Spanish 
possessions and the States of the confederacy. Mr. Jay did not 
reach Spain until March, 1780. In November, M. Gerard, the 
French Minister to the United States, was succeeded b«y the Cheva- 
lier Luzerne, a man of great influence, and highly esteemed by both 
governments. 

The prospects of the American cause at the close of this year 
were as gloomy as at any previous period of the war. The alliance 
with France, upon which so much hope had rested, proved exceed- 
ingly inefficient, and it is quite doubtful whether, up to the time in 
question, that alliance was not detrimental rather than useful. It 
is true, the diversion of the English navy from our coast by 
the fleet of D'Estaing, and the necessity experienced by the 
British government to keep a respectable land force in the West 
Indies, and also a force sufficient at home to repel a threatened 
invasion of the combined armies of France and Spain, greatly 
crippled her power, and prevented that vigorous prosecution of the 
war here which greater numbers would have effected. But this 
negative aid was doubtless balanced by the apathy of the Americans, 
an apathy arising from a too great reliance upon French fleets and 
armies, and a belief that the belligerent position of Spain and Hol- 
land towards England, would coerce the latter into negotiations for 
peace. In addition to these causes for apprehending the loss to the 
Americans of that independence they had so boldly asserted, was the 
more formidable one of internal dissension and want of harmony in 
the councils of our infant nation, having their origin in the hydra 

* He demanded from each county in New Jersey, a certain quantity of meat and 
flour to be brought into camp within six days. Unlike the inhabitants of Pennsylva- 
nia, the people of New Jersey very cheerfully complied with the demand, notwith- 
standing they had been heavily taxed on former occasions. 

f Owing to local feelings, there were several ballotings for this office on the 
twenty-sixth, the members being equally divided in their choice between Mr 
Adams and Mr. Jay. 

20 



300 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1779. 

Recall of Silas Deane. Difficulties with Thomas Paine. 

of party spirit, whose pestiferous breath has ever been, and ever 
will be, a mephitic influence, paralysing, if not utterly destroying, 
the energies of every enterprise over which it is diffused. And 
worse than all, so far as the good opinion and the hoped-for aid of 
Europe was concerned, our diplomatic agents abroad had been 
engaged in personal disputes, which finally created parties at home 
and led to measures that alarmed every true friend of the cause. 

Some of these foreign agents were recalled, among whom was the 
ardent but injudicious Silas Deane, who was charged with having 
exceeded his powers in engaging French officers to go to the United 
States, with promises of rank and pay, which could not be redeemed ; 
and in other respects his conduct was censured. Deane, as soon as 
he arrived, requested Congress to appoint a commissioner to inquire 
into his conduct, but thinking there was unnecessary delay in com- 
plying with his request, he published an inflammatory address to the 
people of the United States, in which he poured out the vials of his 
"wrath upon the heads of all his opponents, some of whom were 
among the most distinguished men in the country, charging them 
with selfishness, chicanery, and personal ambition. Thomas Paine, 
who was then the Secretary of Congress for Foreign Affairs, and one 
of the most ardent defenders of American freedom, wrote a caustic 
reply to Deane in one of his papers signed " Common Sense," in 
which he unhesitatingly accused him of fraudulent attempts, while 
in Europe, to enrich himself by means of his agency ; and pointed to 
the fact that a sum of money sent to America from Louis XVI. 
before the consummation of the Treaty of Alliance, appeared in 
Dearie's account as a loan, when, as Paine asserted, it was a free 
gift from that monarch. The papers in Paine's possession, as For- 
eign Secretary, gave him every facility for information, and this 
facility he indiscreetly used by copying from diplomatic documents 
in his office. The French Minister to Congress, Gerard, knowing 
these charges to come from the pen of Paine, memorialized that body 
upon the subject, and defended his sovereign against the serious 
charge of having given aid to the revolted Colonies of a power with 
which he was then in alliance. Through the influence of Gerard 
and the political enemies of Paine, the Secretary was cited to appear 
as a delinquent at the bar of Congress, where he at once acknow- 
ledged the authorship of the article. As soon as he withdrew, 
resolutions for his dismissal from office, on the ground of an abuse 
of trust and confidence, in publishing extracts from secret corres- 
pondence in his possession, were offered, but before any were 
adopted, Paine sent in his resignation, disgusted at the temporizing 
and factious spirit which he saw daily increasing around him. 



CHAP. IX.] 



EVENTS OF 1779. 



301 



President Laurens's Letter. 



Its effect upon the people. 



The ferment of the public mind was greatly augmented at this 
time by the publication, in a New York newspaper,* of an extract 
from a letter alleged to have been written by Mr. Laurens, the 
President of Congress, to Governor Huiston, of Georgia, which 
letter had been seized among other papers of the Governor by the 
enemy during their invasion of that State. This letter accused 
a large portion of the delegates in Congress of being devoid of 
integrity and patriotism, and spoke of the times as remarkable for 
corruption. Notwithstanding there was some truth in these allega- 
tions, in particular instances, yet, as a body, the American Congress 
still maintained its high character for integrity and patriotism, 
obscured, it must be confessed, by rancorous party spirit. The letter 
ascribed to Laurens was considered a forgery, and yet it had a 
powerful effect upon the people, and, combined with other causes 
alluded to, made every true patriot tremble for his country's inde- 
pendence. 

These things caused Washington a great deal of anxiety, and his 
hopeful spirit at times almost gave way to despondency. He saw 
a powerful enemy putting forth new energies ; an ally comparatively 
inefficient ; the public treasury empty ; the circulating medium of 
his country almost worthless ; his army discontented with low fare 
and slow pay, and on the verge of mutiny ; and Congress, the 
strong right arm of power on which rested the dearest interests of 
the country, convulsed and paralysed by dissensions within. In 
view of these dark shadows upon the landscape, where long ere this 
he had hoped to see nothing but sunny smiles, he was forced to 
declare that "friends and foes were combining to pull down the 
fabric they had been raising at the expense of so much time, blood, 
and treasure."! 

* " Rivington's Royal Gazette," the printing establishment of which was de- 
stroyed in 1775, by a party of Connecticut militia under Captain Isaac Sears, called 
" King Sears." It was re-established in 1776, when the British took possession of 
the city. 

f Washington's Letters. 




Ruing of Ticcnderoga. 



EVENTS OF 1780. 




Nathaniel Greene— Benedict Arnold— Jchn Andre 



CHAPTER X . 



sions, 
bring 



IR HENRY CLINTON, as we have 

before observed, departed from New 
York at the close of December, under 
convoy of several ships of the line, 
commanded by Admiral Arbuthnot, and 
proceeded with between seven and eight 
thousand troops, to make an attack upon 
the more defenceless States of the south. 
He also took with him an immense 
amount of military stores and provi- 
determined to prosecute the war with so much vigor as to 
it to a close during the projected campaign. He was pretty 




304 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1780. 

Sir Henry Clinton's disastrous voyage. Preparations for besieging Charleston. 

well informed of the financial embarrassments of the Americans ; of 
the party dissensions in Congress, and the greatly impoverished state 
of the country ; and he relied almost as much upon the silent destruc- 
tiveness of these causes to insure his success, as upon his arms. 

The fleet with Clinton's army had not proceeded far from Sandy 
Hook, when it was overtaken by a terrible storm and driven far 
from its course. Some of the transports were captured by American 
privateers, others were lost, and all were damaged to some extent. 
A vessel containing all the heavy ordnance for the siege of Charles- 
ton, was lost, and nearly all of the horses belonging to the artillery 
and cavalry perished. It was the last of January before Clinton 
reached Savannah, when he immediately began to repair his losses, 
and to endeavor, if possible, to obtain recruits and horses for his 
cavalry, from among the tory population.* On the tenth of Febru- 
ary, he departed from Savannah for the siege of Charleston. Gene- 
ral Lincoln, who was at Charleston, anticipating this expedition from 
the north, had employed the time in making preparations for a 
vigorous defence. He had with him about two thousand regulars, 
one thousand militia, and a large body of armed citizens. With this 
force within the city, and the sure expectation of preventing the 
British from passing the bar at the entrance between Sullivan's and 
Long Island, Lincoln prepared for a successful defence. 

On the eleventh of February, Sir Henry Clinton took possession 
of some of the islands south of the city, where he remained more 
than a month, when he crossed the Ashley River with the advance 
of his army, and, on the first of April, commenced the erection of 
batteries within eight hundred yards of the American works. They ' 
consisted of a chain of redoubts, lines, and batteries, across the penin- 
sula from the Ashley to the Cooper Rivers, upon which were 
mounted eighty cannons and mortars. In front of this was a canal 
filled with water, and before the canal were two rows of abattis and 
a picketed ditch.f In addition to these defences, the Americans had 
a flotilla within the harbor, consisting of nine frigates (one a French 
vessel) and several galleys. 

* Disaffection to the American cause, and an adhesion to the Crown, were daily 
increasing at the south. The protraction of the war and consequent misery, and 
the succession of defeats experienced by the Americans, made the people sigh for 
peace. Governor Rutledge had been invested with dictatorial powers, and when 
Clinton approached he called out the militia, but the response was feeble. He then 
commanded all having property in the city, who were on the muster-roll, to join 
the garrison immediately, or suffer the penalty of confiscation. But even this 
rigorous measure did not have the desired effect, and the garrison, when attacked, 
did not number five thousand men, including regulars, militia, and seamen. 

t These defences were constructed under the superintendence of a French engi- 
neer named Laumay. 



chap, x.] EVENTS OF 1780. 305 

Lincoln summoned to surrender. Battles at Monk's Corner and upon the Santee River. 

On the ninth of April, Admiral Arbuthnot, favored by a strong 
southerly wind and a high tide, passed Fort Moultrie with little 
opposition, and anchored his fleet in the harbor within cannon-shot 
of the town. On his approach the American flotilla abandoned its 
station and proceeded to the city. The British batteries being at the 
same time prepared to open a fire upon the town, General Clinton 
and Admiral Arbuthnot then jointly sent a summons to 
General Lincoln to surrender." The latter promptly refused, 
when a destructive fire from the ships and batteries was opened upon 
the town. 

In the meanwhile, the Americans had assembled a corps at Monk's 
Corner, on the upper part of Cooper River, and about thirty miles 
from Charleston, where they received recruits and also provisions 
for the city. From this point they determined, when a sufficient 
force should be collected, to invest the besiegers in the rear, and 
thus bring them within the range of two fires. This corps was 
under the command of General Huger, and Clinton observed his 
movements with some alarm. He at once ceased his attack upon 
the city and despatched a detachment of fourteen hundred men, 
commanded by Colonel Webster, accompanied by Colonels Tarleton 
and Ferguson, all men distinguished for valor, to attack the Republi- 
cans at Monk's Corner. They arrived about three o'clock in the 
morning, and took the Americans completely by surprise. 
They were instantly routed, and all were slain who did not P " 
seek safety in flight. General Huger, and Colonels Washington and 
Jamieson,* were among those who escaped by throwing themselves 
into a morass. The British captured four hundred horses and a 
large quantity of provisions and other military stores. Cornwallis 
having taken the command on the left bank of the river, the enemy 
swept the whole country along that side, to Charleston, and thus the 
city became completely invested, and supplies of men and provisions 
were effectually cut off. 

Soon after the surprise of the garrison at Monk's Corner, Tarle- 
ton, by a circuitous route, came stealthily upon an American corps 
upon the Santee River, and so sudden was his movement, that the 
Americans, who had their horses all saddled, had not time 
to mount, and were completely dispersed. 

About this time, Sir Henry Clinton received a reinforcement of 
three thousand men ; and seeing resistance comparatively useless, 
Lincoln proposed measures to secure his little army from destruc- 



* The commanding officers into whose hands Andre was subsequently delivered 
after his arrest. 



306 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1780. 

Surrender of Lincoln and the whole American army of the South. 

tion ; but the principal inhabitants, remembering the brutality 
of the British on like occasions elsewhere, prevailed upon him 
to only offer terms of capitulation favorable to the people, and 
on condition that the garrison should be allowed to serve again 
in the American army. This proposition Clinton rejected, and 
the siege steadily progressed. On the sixth of May Fort Moultrie 
surrendered, and all the outposts successively fell. The broken 
remnant of the American cavalry, which had been collected by 
Colonel White, were again dispersed by Tarleton, and the be- 
sieged saw nothing but destruction before them. The enemy had 
been advancing for two days, and the third parallel which Clinton 
had formed, being completed, preparations were made for a general 
assault. To spare the people of the town all the horrors of an 
assault and storm, General Lincoln concluded to surrenders 
upon the conditions offered by Clinton at first.* Pursuant 
to these terms, the garrison piled their arms, and a division of the 
British army under General Leslie, took possession of Charleston. 
The loss of the British in killed and wounded, was two hundred and 
sixty-eight, and of the Americans two hundred and fifty-four. The 
number of American prisoners was about six thousand, including 
about one thousand American and French seamen. There were a 
great number of officers, and this made an imposing appearance in 
the report of the British commander. The Deputy Governor and 
half of the Members of the Council of the province, seven generals, 
a commodore, nine colonels, fourteen lieutenant-colonels, fifteen 
majors, eighty-four captains, eighty-four lieutenants, and thirty-two 
second lieutenants and ensigns, were among the prisoners taken. 
Nearly four hundred pieces of ordnance were captured, and all the 
naval force in the vicinity was either seized or destroyed. 

Never was there a triumph and defeat more complete, or which 
seemed more to assure the reunion to Britain of at least a large 
portion of her revolted Colonies. With very small exceptions, the 
whole military force of the Americans stationed in the southern 
States, including all its means and implements of war, was at once 
captured. A great proportion of the inhabitants, partly through fear, 
and partly from honest sentiment, testified their satisfaction, while 

* The garrison were allowed some of the honors of war. They were to march 
out and deposit their arms between the canal and their lines ; but the drums were 
not to play a British march, nor were the colors to be reversed ; the regular troops 
and seamen keeping their baggage, were to remain prisoners of war ; the militia 
were to return home as prisoners on parole : the citizens of all descriptions were 
also to be considered as prisoners on parole, but their property was to be respected; 
and the officers of the army and navy were to retain their servants, swords, pistols, 
and baggage. 



chap, x.] EVENTS OF 1780. 307 

Rigorous measures of Clinton. His departure for New York. 

the patriots and the lukewarm gave a silent acquiescence. There 
was scarcely a soldier in South Carolina or Georgia, who was not 
either a prisoner on parole, or in arms for the Crown.* 

Clinton had been secretly assured that he would receive ample 
support from the tories as soon as he should reach the State, and 
confident that his victory would confirm the wavering and intimidate 
a multitude of the less valiant republicans, he at once set about 
establishing a royal government there again. He published a pro- 
clamation, promising to the people a renewal of all their former 
privileges, with the addition that they should not be taxed, unless by 
their own consent. He soon after issued another, absolving the 
militia from their paroles, and earnestly exhorting them to join with 
the other citizens in support of the British cause. 

In the meanwhile, he determined to have entire possession of the 
Slate, and for this purpose, before the ardor of victory should cool, 
he sent out three detachments to take possession of important posts. 
One expedition seized the post of Ninety-Six ; another scoured the 
country bordering on the Savannah River ; a third, under Cornwallis, 
passed the Santee, and captured Georgetown, about six miles north- 
east from Charleston. A body of about four hundred patriots, under 
Colonel Buford, who were retreating towards North Carolina, were 
pursued and overtaken by Colonel Tarleton, who gave no 
quarter, and they were nearly all cut to pieces.! a These 
expeditions proving successful ; the capital of the State in his pos- 
session ; the people flocking to his standard from all quarters ; and 
the whole State comparatively quiet, Clinton left Cornwallis in com- 
mand of about four thousand troops, to maintain, and if possible, 
extend, his conquests, and on the fifth of June sailed for New York. 

Sir Henry Clinton had no sooner departed, than bands with intre- 
pid leaders, began to collect in various parts of the State, particu- 
larly on the frontiers, and by a sort of guerilla warfare, greatly 
annoyed the British troops. Colonel Sumter was the most distin- 
guished of these partisan leaders, and gave the British a great deal 
of trouble. Although repulsed in an attack which he made upon 
them at Rocky Mount,* yet he was not disheartened, and b July30 
soon after surprised and completely routed a large body of 
British regulars and tories at a place called Hanging Rock. c c ug ' '' 
This event gave the republicans great joy, and restored their confi- 
dence, while the loyalists again began to tremble with fear. 

* Murray, vol. ii., p. 69. 

f After that, when any furious engagement took place, of a brutal character, it 
was called Tarleton's quarters. 



308 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1780. 

March of General Gates to the South. Battle of Sander's Creek, and Death of De Kalb. 

Early in the Spring, Washington had perceived the necessity of 
a much stronger force in the Carolinas, and he made arrangements 
for the march of troops from Maryland and Delaware, and called out 
the militia of Virginia and North Carolina. These forces were 
placed under the command of the Baron de Kalb, an eminent Ger- 
man officer ; but General Gates was soon after placed by Congress 
in command of the whole southern army, and began his journey 
thitherward in March. His progress was a very tardy one, owing to 
a want of money and military stores and provisions, and it was the 
beginning of August before he reached Camden, about one hundred 
and ten miles north-west from Charleston. He had with him about 
four thousand men, chiefly militia, and encamped at Clermont, about 
thirteen miles from Camden. Lord Rawdon, who was in command 
of a division of the British army in that quarter, concentrated his 
forces at the former place. Gates determined to push offensive 
operations vigorously, hoping to cause Lord Rawdon to fall back 
upon Charleston, but that General, as soon as he received tidings of 
the approach of the Americans, gave notice to Cornwallis, 
who was at Charleston, and he immediately hastened to 
join him. 

On the night of the fifteenth of August, both armies moved for an 
attack, each ignorant of the other's design. The two vanguards met 
near Sander's Creek, and commenced firing in the dark. But both 
presently halted, formed into line, ceased firing, and awaited daylight 
to commence again. At early dawn a general engagement- 
commenced* between the two armies, and the first terrible 
onset of the enemy's regulars upon the raw militia, decided the fate 
of the battle. The British charged with fixed bayonets, and soon put 
the Virginia and Carolina militia to flight. The Maryland and Dela- 
ware regiments fought more bravely, and for a while seemed to give 
assurance of victory, compelling the enemy several times to retire. 
At length the whole force of the enemy was directed towards these two 
corps, and a tremendous shower of bullets was poured incessantly 
into their ranks. Cornwallis attacked them at the same time with 
fixed bayonets, which compelled them to give way, and as they 
broke, Colonel Tarleton's cavalry charged upon them and dispersed 
them with great slaughter. Baron de Kalb, while exerting himself 
with great bravery to prevent the loss of the battle, received eleven 
wounds, and soon after expired.* In this engagement about five 
hundred of the British were killed and wounded. It is impossible 

* On the fourteenth of October, Congress resolved to erect a monument to his 
memory in Annapolis. 



chap, x.] EVENTS OF 1780. 309 

Brittle of the Wateree. Rigorous measures of Cornwallis. 

to estimate the loss of the Americans in killed, wounded, and prison- 
ers, as no returns of the militia were made after the action. British 
authors state the loss at about two thousand, while the Americans 
make it only one thousand. General Gates retreated to Charlotte 
and from thence to Hillsborough, with the remnant of his forces. 

On the evening before the battle of Sander's Creek, a Colo- 
nel Sumter, who had been sent against a post of the enemy 
on the Wateree, made a successful attack, and captured about forty 
•wagons and one hundred prisoners. While Sumter was on his way 
to join Gates, Colonel Tarleton with his cavalry rode into 
the camp and took him completely by surprise.* Sumter's 
troops were quite exhausted by labor and want of sleep, and made 
but a feeble resistance, many saving themselves by flight into the 
woods and swamps. Tarleton recaptured the English prisoners, and 
conveyed them in triumph back to the British camp. 

Believing the State again completely subdued, Cornwallis adopted 
very rigorous measures to coerce the inhabitants into submission to 
royal authority.* Private rights were trampled under foot, and 
social organization was completely superseded by the iron rule of 
military despotism. But these violent measures, as usual, failed to 
effect their object, for, notwithstanding the spirit of the people was 
awed and greatly restrained, yet it was not broken or subdued. 

Early in September, Cornwallis sent. Colonel Ferguson, an active 
partisan, with about sixteen hundred loyalist militia, to sweep the 
country to the frontiers of Virginia, and encourage the tories to take 
up arms. The most abandoned and profligate joined his standard, 
and the excesses which they committed aroused the militia of the 
borders, and soon powerful bands were organized. The republicans 
rode on fleet horses, carrying only a rifle, a blanket, and knapsack, 
and making the earth their bed at night. They moved with a 



* Cornwallis sent orders to his various commanders to hang instanter every mili- 
tiaman who, having served in the British army, had joined the Americans. Fear- 
ing also the influence of many of the leading patriots in that quarter, he violated 
the faith of a conquering general, and broke the stipulations of their parole. By 
his order, the Lieutenant Governor (Gadsden), most of the civil and militia officers, 
and some other of the friends of the republicans, of character, were taken 
out of their beds and houses'* by armed parties, and collected at the a Aug - ~' 
Exchange, from whence they were conveyed on board a guard-ship and transported 
to St Augustine, in Florida. Strong remonstrance against this perfidious act was 
made, but all in vain, and the British commander, unable to defend such conduct, 
endeavored to silence appeals by refusing to receive them. The people became 
greatly exasperated ; many loyalists embraced the cause of the republicans, and a 
mingled cry of vengeance, and execration of the British standard, went forth from 
a thousand lips hitherto timorously silent, or defensive of the British Crown. 



310 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1780. 

Battle of King's Mountain. Retreat of Cornwallis. 

rapidity to which ordinary troops were strangers, and even Tarleton 
was baffled in all his pursuits of them. 

Ferguson having learned that about three thousand of these bor- 
derers had mustered in a phalanx to oppose him, began a rapid 
retreat towards the main army ; but being informed that about 
sixteen hundred of them were in pursuit of him, he felt the hope- 
lessness of escaping from their astonishing swiftness, and took post 
on King's Mountain, an eminence near the boundary line between 
North and South Carolina, where he awaited an attack. 
They ascended the mountain in three divisions," the first 
of which was charged by Ferguson and his men with fixed bayo- 
nets, and driven back ; but the Americans attacked them on every 
side from the coverts of trees, rocks, and ravines, and the British fell 
in great numbers. At length Colonel Ferguson was mortally 
wounded, and his whole force was immediately routed, with the loss 
of three hundred killed and wounded and eight hundred taken prison- 
ers. Among the spoils, fifteen hundred stand of arms were cap- 
tured. The loss of the Americans was only twenty. 

In the meantime, Cornwallis had pushed on to Salisbury, near 
Virginia, and, in expectation of his reaching that State, a reinforce- 
ment intended for him, under General Leslie, was ordered to enter 
the Chesapeake. But when Cornwallis heard of the defeat of Fer- 
guson, he was much alarmed lest this victorious band should 
greatly increase and overrun South Carolina, where he fondly hoped 
all would be quiet for a while. He accordingly retraced his steps, 
and Leslie was instructed to proceed to Charleston.* 

While these events were transpiring, General Sumter,t notwith- 
standing his defeat, had again collected a band of volunteers, and 
continued to harass the enemy greatly. General Marion,^ an intre- 
pid leader, with about two hundred daring men, also annoyed the 
British outposts continually, and so skilful were his manoeuvres, that 
even Tarleton could not hunt him down. He was constantly cutting 
off straggling parties of the enemy, and kept the tories completely in 
check. He subsequently performed signal service to the American 

* This retreat was a disastrous one, and exceedingly disheartening to the British 
troops. It rained nearly all the time, the mud in some places was knee-deep, and 
streams of every size had to be forded. Lord Cornwallis fell sick, and the manage- 
ment of the retreat was left to Lord Rawdon, the second in command. They reached 
Camden (from whence they started) on the twenty-ninth of October. 

f Colonel Sumter was created Brigadier-General by Governor Rutledge soon 
after his first daring exploits on the borders of the Carolinas. 

X Marion was at the siege of Charleston and held the rank of Colonel. He was 
wounded and disabled from commanding his regiment. He was soon after promoted 
to Brigadier by Governor Rutledge. 



chap, x.] EVENTS OF 1780. 311 

General Gates superseded by General Greene. Battles of Broad River and Blackstock. 

cause, and no name is more highly honored at the south than that of 
Francis Marion. 

On the twelfth of November, Major Wemys made an attack upon 
Sumter at Broad River, but the British were defeated with the loss 
of their commander taken prisoner. On the twentieth of November, 
Sumter was attacked bv Colonel Tarleton, at Blackstock, but, after 
a severe loss, the British were obliged to retreat and leave Sumter 
victorious upon the field. The latter immediately crossed the river, 
but so severe had been his loss during the engagement, that the cour 
age of his men failed, and nearly his whole band became dispersed 

Gates used every exertion to collect and reorganize his defeated 
army, and reinforcements were forwarded to him. But his defeat, 
as is often the case, incurred reproaches, and Washington was called 
upon to institute an inquiry into his conduct, and to nominate another 
commander. He named the brave General Greene, one of the most 
talented officers in the Continental army ; and Washington assured 
Congress that all Greene needed to insure victory was troops and 
supplies in reasonable quantity. When Greene arrived at 
the point of command, a the army numbered about two thou- 
sand men, nearly all of whom Avere regulars, and he immediately 
concerted some movements to support the cause in South Carolina, 
and endeavor to cut off Cornwallis from the upper country. Thus 
closed the military events of the year at the south. Let us now turn 
our attention northward. 

Immediately after Sir Henry Clinton left New York for the * Dec - 26 - 
south,* the most intense cold weather prevailed, and the bay 
and harbor in the vicinity of that city were completely frozen over. 
Thus cut off from supplies of aid from the sea, the British troops in the 
city might have been easily captured with a small force, but so greatly 
reduced were Washington's troops in numbers, dispirited by priva- 
tions, and in fact, influenced by a spirit of mutiny, that he was obliged 
to see the golden moment pass by while he was compelled to be com- 
paratively inactive. An ineffectual attempt was indeed made against 
a post upon Staten Island by Lord Stirling, with a detach- 
ment under his command, but the ice was so strong in the 
bay that the enemy received reinforcements from New York, who 
marched over upon this brittle bridge, and obliged Stirling to retreat, 
during the night, back to the American camp. This was the only 
expedition attempted by Washington during the winter, because of 
the extreme weakness of his little army — weak not only in numbers, 
but physically weak, from actual privations,* and weak in moral 

* There were whole days on which Washington had neither biscuit nor bread to 



312 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1780. 

Arrival of La Fayette. Commissions to Washington from Louis XVI- 

strength from the crushing operations of foreshadowing despair. 
Murmurs, also, were daily increasing in frequency and intensity, and 
symptoms of a general mutiny soon after appeared. 

But the drooping spirits of the Americans were greatly revived 
by the joyful news communicated to Congress and to the Command- 
er-in-chief by La Fayette on his arrival from France.* a He 
announced the good tidings that France was about sending 
money for the treasury, and troops for the armies of America, and 
that the latter were already embarked when he left, and doubtless 
were on their way.f Washington received by the hands of La 
Fayette, a commission from Louis XVI. appointing him Lieutenant- 
General of the armies of France, and Vice- Admiral of its fleets. 
This was done to prevent any difficulties that might occur on the 
score of etiquette ; and it was arranged that as the French were to 
be considered auxiliaries they were to cede the post of honor to the 
Americans ; and Lieutenant-General Count de Rochambeau, the 
commander of the French expedition, was to place himself under 
the American Commander-in-chief. These arrangements were 
highly satisfactory, and during the stay of the French army in 
America the very best understanding prevailed among the respective 

officers 4 

Early in June* General Knyphausen detached about five 

b June 7. ^ J l 

thousand men under the general command of Brigadier 

give his famished men, and the forage having failed, a great proportion of his 
horses perished, or were rendered useless. 

* The militia, greatly inspirited, flocked to the American standard ; Congress 
exhibited new vigor ; capitalists came forward with pecuniary aid, and the women 
of America, true to their character, were foremost in giving assistance. In Phila- 
delphia they formed a society, placing Mrs. Washington at its head, and after sub- 
scribing, themselves, to the extent of their ability, they went from house to house 
soliciting aid and stimulating patriotic sentiment, and, by their exertions, large 
sums were placed in the military chest. Other cities followed their noble example, 
and large sums of money were thus collected and appropriated to the use of the 
republican army. It may not be inappropriate to notice here one of a hundred 
instances of the hearty co-operation in the cause, of the American women. In an 
old paper (Green's New London Gazette) dated Nov. 20, 1776, is the following an- 
nouncement: — " On the eighteenth of September, several of the most respectable 
ladies in East Haddam, about thirty in number, met at J. Chapman's and husked, 
in four or five hours, about two hundred and forty bushels of corn. A noble exam- 
ple, so necessary in this bleeding country, while their fathers and brothers were 
fighting the battles of the nation." 

f This expedition was, in a great measure, the result of the untiring personal 
exertions of La Fayette, and he did not quit his country until he saw the expedition 
ready to sail. Congress, appreciating his noble and timely service, complimented 
him by a vote of thanks ; and his presence here gave great hopes to the Americans. 

| As a compliment to the French, and as a token of friendship, the American 
officers wore cockades of black and white intermixed, the former being the color 
of the American cockade, the latter of the French. 



chap, x.] EVENTS OF 1780. 313 

British incursions into New Jersey. Arrival of the French fleet with troops. 

Mathews, who passed over from Staten Island into New Jersey, 
landing at Elizabethtown Point. From that place they marched up 
the country towards Springfield, burning the village of Connecticut 
Farms (now Union) on their way. Sir Henry Clinton had just 
arrived from the south, and hoping to bring Washington into a 
general action, passed over with Knyphausen into New Jersey 
with some additional troops. Washington had sent a detachment 
from his camp at Morristown, and compelled the British to withdraw 
from Springfield, but, being deceived by some movements of Clinton, 
lie left General Greene at the latter place, and marched towards the 
Hudson highlands. The British attacked and defeated Greene, took 
possession of and burned the town, and then returned to New York ; 
for Clinton, being in hourly expectation of the arrival of the French 
expedition, was unwilling to have his force separated and weakened 
by these almost fruitless operations. The only inducement Knyp- 
hausen had to send out this expedition was the hope that the reported 
defection of the American troops might be increased, and a general 
revolt obtained. 

Early in July, 0, intelligence was received that the French a July 4 " 
fleet* had been seen off the Capes of Virginia, and on the twelfth it 
entered the harbor of Newport, in Rhode Island. The fleet was 
commanded by Chevalier Ternay,t and had on board six thousand 
troops under the command of Count de Rochambeau, an experienced 
officer, who had served with much distinction in the " Seven Years' 
War." A second division of the French army destined for America, 
was left at Brest waiting for transports. It was subsequently block- 
aded by an English fleet, and never reached its destination. The 
forces of Rochambeau were not sufficient to meet the emergency, 
and the combined armies did not number as many as the single 
division of the enemy in New York.| Washington meditated a joint 
attack by sea and land upon New York, but, on the arrival of a 
naval reinforcement for the British, he abandoned it until Admiral de 
Guichen with his fleet should arrive from the West Indies, an event 
daily looked for. Clinton also meditated an attack upon the French 
fleet and troops at Newport, but his delay in equipping his vessels 
was so great that the place was made too strong for him, and he 



* It consisted of seven ships of the line, some frigates, and a number of trans- 
ports. 

t Ternay died at Newport while in command of the squadron. 

% The American army, in the plan of the campaign of 17S0, was fixed at thirty-five 
thousand two hundred and eleven men, instead of which, the actual force in the 
field and under arms, at the end of June, amounted to only about five thousand five 
hundred men. 



314 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1780. 

Conference at Hartford between Washington and the French officers. Arnold in Philadelphia. 

abandoned the enterprise. The arrival, soon after, of Admiral Rod- 
ney, made the British complete masters of the seas. As the season 
was advancing, and it was evident that little could be done during 
the remainder of the year, it was determined to remain in a defen- 
sive attitude, and prepare for the next campaign.* For this purpose, 
Washington and Rochambeau met in conference at Hart- 

b . a Sept. 21. 

ford, a and there completed their plans for the following year. 

It was during this conference at Hartford, and the absence of 
Washington from his head-quarters, that an event occurred which, 
but for the overruling interposition of Providence, would have utterly 
destroyed the American cause and made the republicans bond-slaves 
again to the King and Parliament of Great Britain. This was the 
Treason of Arnold. 

When, in the spring of 1778, the British evacuated Philadelphia, 
General Arnold was stationed there by Washington, with some troops 
of the Pennsylvania line, as military Governor. The state of his 
wounds was the reason why he was not engaged in more active 
service ; but the Commander-in-chief, who detested his vices, appre- 
ciated his great bravery and military talents, and was unwilling to 
have them remain idle. Arnold took possession of the mansion 
formerly occupied by William Penn, and, furnishing it sumptuously, 
lived there in the most extravagant style.f His private fortune was 
by no means adequate to the support of such style, and embarrass- 
ment very soon followed. Rather than retrench his expenses and 
live within his means, he chose to procure money by a system of 
fraud and injustice,! which soon produced discontents, and he was 

* In November, the French troops went into winter-quarters at Newport, and the 
cavalry, detached from the legion of the Due de Lauzun, were sent to the barracks 
constructed at Lebanon, in Connecticut. — See Count de Rochambeau's Narrative 
of the Campaigns of the French army in the United States. 

t Arnold had recently married. It was from one of the disaffected or tory families 
that he selected his wife. He loved her with passionate fondness, and she deserved 
his attachment, by her virtues and solidity of understanding. In addition to these 
advantages, she possessed an extraordinary share of beauty, distinguishable even in 
a country where nature has been prodigal of her favors to the sex. A considerable 
time before this marriage, when Philadelphia was still in the hands of the enemy, 
the relatives of the lady had given an eager welcome to the British commanders. 
His marriage therefore caused some surprise, but he was pledged to the republic 
by so many services rendered and benefits received, that the alliance gave umbrage 
to no one. — American Register, vol. ii., p. 31, 1817. 

It is generally believed that Arnold's wife was instrumental in weakening his 
attachment to the American cause. 

J Under pretence of the wants of the army, he forbade the shop-keepers to sell 
or buy ; he then put their goods at the disposal of his agents, and caused them 
afterwards to be resold with a profit. At one moment he prostituted his authority 
to enrich his accomplices ; at the next, squabbled with them about the division of 
the prey. — Ibid., p. 23. 



chap, x.] EVENTS OF 1780. 315 

Charges against Arnold laid before Congress. His sentence, reprimand, and disaffection. 

arraigned before the tribunals of the law. But under the broad aegis 
of military power, he set both law and justice at defiance. 

His conduct became too flagitious to be borne, and the President 
of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania preferred charges against 
him and laid them before Congress. A joint committee of that 
body and of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, was appointed to inquire 
into the matter, the result of which was, the charges seemed to be 
sustained, and the complaints were transmitted to Washington, in 
order for trial. Arnold had previously presented to Congress large 
claims against the government on account of money which he alleged 
he had expended for the public service in Canada. A part of his 
claim was disallowed, and it was generally believed that he attempted 
to cheat the government by false financial statements. 

Arnold at once resigned the command which he held in Philadel- 
phia, and repaired to the camp at Morristown, where the court- 
martial to try him was convened. He used every art to win its 
membei's to his interests, but in vain. On the twentieth of 
January," the court pronounced its decision of guilty, and 
condemned him to be reprimanded by the Commander-in-chief. 
Washington performed this painful duty with all possible delicacy,* 
yet Arnold's pride was too deeply wounded to allow him to appre- 
ciate the tenderness of his General, or to form good resolutions for 
future usefulness to his country. He left the army, and that devo- 
tion to the American cause which he had always exhibited, was 
changed to intense hatred ; and, after revolving various schemes in 
his mind,f he formed the secret resolution to retrieve his fortune and 
gratify his revenge, by bartering away the liberties for which his 
countrymen were contending. His first step was to make the Bri- 
tish commander aware of his discontent. This was a delicate 

* When Arnold was brought before him, he kindly addressed him, saying, " Our 
profession is the chastest of all. Even the shadow of a fault tarnishes the lustre of 
our finest achievements. The least inadvertence may rob us of the public favor, so 
hard to be acquired. I reprimand you for having forgotten, that, in proportion as 
you had rendered yourself formidable to our enemies, you should have been guard- 
ed and temperate in your deportment towards your fellow citizens : exhibit anew 
those noble qualities which have placed you on the list of our most valued com- 
manders. I will, myself, furnish you, as far as it may be in my power, with oppor- 
tunities of regaining the esteem of your country." 

t He conceived the idea of joining some of the Indian tribes, and, uniting many 
of them in. one, become a great and powerful chief. This scheme he soon aban- 
doned, and then he applied to the French Minister (Luzerne, who succeeded 
Gerard), a man of great honor and just sentiments, for a loan, promising faithful 
adherence to the King and country of the Minister. Luzerne, although a great 
admirer of Arnold's talents, could not look upon this attempt to get money with 
complacency, and he rebuked him, kindly but severely. As a last resort, Arnold 
determined to betray his country. 

21 



316 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1780. 

Arnold's plan to betray his country. His demand for the price of his treason. 

matter, for he knew not whom to trust with his secret. He revealed 
it to his wife, and it had her approval. English emissaries visited 
his house, but he was too wary to trust their discretion. At length 
he communicated his designs to Charles Beverly Robinson, an Ame- 
rican by birth, but holding the post of Colonel in the British army in 
New York, and expressed to him a wish to open a correspondence 
with Sir Henry Clinton. 

Through the sound judgment and forethought of Washington, and 
the skill of French engineers, West Point was very strongly fortified, 
and presented a most formidable barrier to British incursions north- 
ward from New York. Immense stores and munitions of war were 
collected there,* and a strong garrison was placed in each of the 
forts, under the command of General Robert Howe. 

Arnold's pride would not allow him to enter the British army as a 
deserter, and he therefore resolved to rejoin the American army ; 
pretend a forgetfulness of what he deemed the injustice of Congress ; 
obtain the command, if possible, of the important post of West 
Point, and then betray it, with its arms, and garrisons, and stores, into 
the hands of the enemy. He had so skilfully dissimulated, and art- 
fully concealed his burning thirst for revenge, that when he expressed 
a desire to re-enter the army, and asked for the command of West 
Point, it was given him, although not without many misgivings on 
the part of Washington.! 

Arnold at once proceeded to the execution of his plans, but, fearing 
those to whom he had sold himself might also prove treacherous, he 
asked for the immediate payment of the price of his infamy. He, how- 
ever, could only get a promise of thirty thousand pounds sterling, 
and a commission of Brigadier-General in the British army. Clinton, 
on the other hand, urged Arnold to surrender the forts at once, but 
the presence of Washington was an insuperable hindrance, for 
Arnold well knew the vigilance of the Commander-in-chief. He 
therefore recommended deliberation, and expressed his wish that 
Major John Andre, J the Adjutant-General of the British army, 
should be fully apprised of the scheme, and appointed to confer with 

* In the vaults of one of the forts, besides the ammunition for its own defence, 
the stock of powder for the whole army was lodged. 

f The news of this unexpected success reached Mrs. Arnold in the midst of a 
large assembly at an evening party in Philadelphia, and so affected her that she 
partly swooned, yet no one suspected the real cause of her emotion, and when she 
recovered, they all congratulated her upon the resolution and good success of her 
husband ! 

I Andre when in Philadelphia had contracted a warm friendship with the family 
of Arnold's wife, and he was favorably known to the General for his bravery and 
accomplishments 



r 



r^sos^Doe? is^ 







chap, x.] EVENTS OF 1780. 319 

Personal interview between Arnold and Andre. The Beverly Robinson Mansion. 

him upon the time, and the best mode of executing it. This request 
was granted, and a correspondence, concealed under a commercial 
character, was opened between them, under the assumed names of 
Gustavus and Anderson. An American, whose house stood upon 
neutral ground between the lines, acted as their messenger. 

Arnold occupied the mansion of Colonel Beverly Robinson,* and 
made his head-quarters there, and as soon as he thought Washington 
had departed! from West Point for the conference with the French 
commander at Hartford, he exacted an immediate personal interview 
with Andre as indispensable for the success of the enterprise. 
Andre and Robinson were the only persons with whom he had cor- 
responded on the subject, and the traitor was unwilling to confide to 
other hands than the former, the maps and other written information 
which Clinton desired. The British commander at first demurred, 
but Andre, anxious to distinguish himself and to execute what he 
sincerely believed it would be, the blow that should finish the war, 
was, upon his own urgent solicitation, allowed to go. Accompanied 
by Robinson, he embarked at night" on board the British a Sept 19 
sloop-of-war Vulture, and the next morning arrived opposite 
Fort Clinton,* about six miles below West Point. h Sept - 2() - 

After some delay, Arnold communicated with Andre and Robin- 
son by means of an American tory named Joshua Smith. They 
landed at night and met Arnold at the water's edge. Andre covered 
his uniform with a surtout, but Arnold, fearing a discovery, took 
him to the house of Robinson, within the American lines, much 
against the feelings and wishes of the young officer, who, though 
zealous in the enterprise, was too honorable to become a spy. All 
the plans were laid before Andre, and it was agreed to surrender the 
forts on the twenty-fifth.:): By a given signal, the British transports 

* This mansion is still standing. It is situated a short distance below West 
Point, on the east side of the Hudson, upon a fertile strip of table-land lyiuo- be- 
tween the river and a part of the lofty range of the eastern highlands. To the 
patriotism and good taste of the proprietor we are indebted for its excellent pre- 
servation in the style of its original construction, the wasting effects of time having 
rendered external repairs necessary. The interior presents its original appearance, 
and upon the wainscot over the mantel in a bed-room, may still be seen the knife- 
carvings of the names of Revolutionary officers who were quartered there. Lieu- 
tenant Thomas Arden, a graduate of West Point, is the present proprietor of the 
mansion, and to his excellent lady the writer is indebted for many polite attentions 
while on a brief visit there for the purpose of making the sketch of the buildin" 
delineated opposite page 316. 

f Washington intended to leave on the seventeenth, but was detained, and did 
not depart until the twentieth. 

X Andre had also conceived the bold design of capturing Washington and his 
staff, who would be at Arnold's head-quarters on the same day, on their return from 
Hartford. 



320 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1780. 

Departure of Andre lor New York. His Arrest near Tarrytown. 

were to sail up the Hudson with a large number of men ; and 
at the same time Arnold, under various pretences, was to withdraw 
most of the troops from the forts, and so distribute them in the ravines 
in the vicinity, as to render them quite weak in case of attack, and 
make the surrender, or the apparent necessity for it, much speedier. 

Andre started immediately to return to New York to give the 
signal to Clinton, but on attempting to go on board the Vulture, he 
found that she had removed some miles below, to get out of reach 
of an American cannon that had commenced firing upon her from the 
shore. The men in the boat refused to go down to the Vulture, and 
Andre returned to Arnold. He exchanged his military suit for 
citizen's dress, provided by Smith, and, accompanied by him, set 
out upon the perilous journey by land to New York, each being fur- 
nished with a passport to " go to the lines at "White Plains, or lower, 
if the bearer thought proper ; he being on public business." They 
traversed the American posts unmolested, crossed the Hudson twice, 
and upon the border of the neutral ground, Smith bade Andre adieu. 
The latter, believing all danger past, spurred on towards New York 
with great speed. When near Tarrytown a man armed with a 
musket suddenly leaped from a clump of bushes by the road side, 
and seizing the reins of his bridle, exclaimed, " Where are you 
bound ?" At the same time, two other militia-men, forming part 
of a volunteer patrol, came up. Andre, mistaking them for British 
soldiers, did not show them his passport, but inquired of them where 
they belonged. They deceived him by the reply " to below" (mean- 
ing New York) ; and he remarked, " And so do I ; I am an English 
officer," he continued, " on urgent business, and I do not wish to be 
longer detained." " You belong to our enemies," they exclaimed, 
" and we arrest you !" They immediately searched him, and found 
in his boots, where they had been placed for safety, Arnold's despatch- 
es, plans, &c, which were evidences that their prisoner was a spy. 

Andre was paralysed for a moment with astonishment, and offered 
them his horse, his purse, his watch, and large rewards from the 
British government, if they would let him go. But their stern patri- 
otism was inflexible, and he was' carried before Colonel Jamieson, 
who was in command of the outposts.* The confidence of that 



* The captors of Andre were named John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac 
Van Wart. Congress, on hearing of the event, immediately passed a resolution 
commendatory of their patriotic conduct ; and in testimony whereof, they ordered 
that each should be paid two hundred dollars annually ; that a silver medal should 
be presented to each, having on one side a shield with " Fidelity" inscribed upon 
it, and on the other side the motto, " Vincit amor patriot," and that the Com- 
mander-in-chief should present them with the thanks of Congress. 




■ 

-a >=S; ."-* 

3* 



chap, x.] EVENTS OF 1780. 323 

Arnold's escape on learning Andre's capture. Trial and execution of Andr6. 

officer in ibe patriotism of Arnold, made him so unsuspecting, that 
he wrote to the traitor apprising him that Anderson, the a s t 23 
bearer of his passport, had been arretted." While at 
breakfast,* Arnold received the startling intelligence. He b Sept ' 25 ' 
concealed his emotion, and retired to reflect on what course to adopt. 
He hoped still to effect his purpose before Washington's return, but 
while thus musing, two American officers arrived, announcing that 
the Commander-in-chief was near, and would soon be with him. 
Suppressing his feelings, he told the two officers he wished to go 
and meet the General alone ; and hastening to the apartment of his 
wife, he exclaimed, " All is discovered ; Andre is a prisoner ; the 
Commander-in-chief will soon know everything ; burn all my papers ; 
I fly to New York !" He embraced her and their infant, rushed 
from the apartment, mounted the horse of one of the officers, and 
fled towards the Hudson, where he had a barge ready manned. He 
threw himself into it, and in a short time was alongside the Vulture.* 
Washington was utterly confounded when he learned what had 
transpired, and repairing immediately to West Point, instituted dili- 
gent inquiries concerning the extent of the treason. The result was 
a conviction that Arnold had no accomplices among the Americans. 
After privately consulting Congress, Washington instituted a court- 
martial at Tappan to try Andre, and appointed General Greene 
President ; the result of which was a report to the Commander-in- 
chief that " Major Andre ought to be considered as a spy from the 
enemy, and that, agreeably to the law and usage of nations, he ought 
to suffer death." Washington and his officers would gladly have 
saved the life of that excellent and accomplished young man, but 
necessity required a rigorous enforcement of penalties. Sir Henry 
Clinton did all in his power to save him. Arnold wrote a letter, 
threatening terrible retribution if Andre's life should be taken, and a 
plan was concerted by the American officersf to seize Arnold, the 
real culprit, and then pardon Andre. But these efforts failed, and. 
on the second of October he was hanged at Tappan. He earnestly 
requested that he might be shot, and thus meet the more honorable 
death of a soldier, and Washington was willing to comply with his 
desire. But he was overruled by his officers, and the unfortunate 

* From the Vulture, Arnold wrote to Washington, justifying his conduct, and 
imploring his protection for his wife and child. This protection was tenderly 
extended, and she was safely conducted to New York. 

t Champe, an American Serjeant-Major of intrepid character, was intrusted with 
the conduct of the enterprise. He left the American camp and appeared in New 
York as a deserter. He there found accomplices, and soon they laid plans for 
abducting the traitor. But unforeseen circumstances thwarted their designs, and 
Champe returned safely to the American lines. 



324 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1780. 

British detestation of Arnold Expedition against Fort George, on Long Island 

young soldier* suffered the ignominious death of a spy. He was 
universally lamented, both by the English and the Americans, and 
mingled expressions of tender regard for the victim, and execrations 
against the traitor, were heard on every side.t 

Arnold, indeed, escaped detection and death, but his fate was far 
worse than that of Andre. Doomed to perpetual banishment from 
his native country ; stung with remorse ; loaded with execrations, 
even from the lips of those unto whom he had bartered his fame for 
gold, he led a miserable existence, to the torments of which death 
was truly a blessing to be coveted. He obtained only a portion of 
his stipulated reward ; was taunted with being the author of an 
abortive treason, in the conception and partial execution of which he 
stood alone,| an d transmitted to his children an " abject name of 
hateful celebrity." The British army detested him, and manifested 
much repugnance to serve with him, and the common soldiers on 
guard, who were bound to respect his rank,§ and salute him, gene- 
rally whispered as he passed, " There goes the traitor Arnold !" 

Very little of importance was done by either army during the 
remainder of the year. General Leslie, with about three thousand 
British troops, ravaged the coast of the Chesapeake during the 
month of October, and captured several vessels and a considerable 
quantity of tobacco ; and on the part of the Americans, a small 
expedition was undertaken in November, by Major Tallmadge, who 
crossed the Sound to Long Island with eighty men, and leaving 
twenty to guard the boats, made a circuitous march to Fort George 
and captured it. He had but one man wounded. He took two 
officers and fifty-five privates prisoners. The two armies went into 
winter-quarters in nearly the same position in which they did the 
year before. 



* He was not quite thirty years of age. 

t Andre was not only a brave soldier, but an accomplished scholar. He began 
life in the peaceful calling of a merchant, but an unfortunate attachment induced 
him to quit his profession and his country. He obtained a commission in a regi- 
ment destined for America, where his bravery, abilities, and accomplishments, soon 
raised him to distinction. The lady of his love, the beautiful and accomplished 
Honora Sneyd, the bosom friend of Anne Seward, became the second wife of that 
man of many wives, R. L. Edgeworth, Esq., the father (by his first wife) of Miss 
Edgeworth, the admirable novelist; but she died of consumption on the thirtieth of 
April, 17S0, five months and two days before the execution of Andre, who appears 
to have been ignorant of the sad event. Andre excelled in music and painting. 
As a poet, he was above the mediocrity of his day. — Pic. His. of the Reign of 
George III., vol. i., p. 436. 

% Arnold was the only American officer who forsook the cause of Independence 
and turned his sword against his country. 

§ He held a commission as Brigadier in the British army. 



chap, x.] EVENTS OF 1780. 325 

Exchange of prisoners. Washington's earnest appeal. Minister to Holland. 



Towards the close of the year an agreement was finally settled 
for a general exchange of prisoners. General Phillips of the British 
army, who had been a prisoner ever since the surrender of Burgoyne, 
and General Lincoln, of the American army, who surrendered at 
Charleston, were exchanged ■ but, owing to some disagreement in 
terms, the' privates of Burgoyne's army were kept prisoners until 
the close of the war. 

Washington earnestly pressed Congress for more troops and for 
enlistments during the war. In fact, knowing how slow was the 
increment of his force by voluntary enlistments, he suggested con- 
scriptions, or something similar. He truly represented that unless 
something of the kind was done, they would soon behold the morti- 
fying spectacle of the American cause wholly upheld by foreign 
troops. He referred to the recuperative energies of Great Britain, 
represented the termination of the war as still distant, and ex- 
pressed his belief that nothing but the apparent infatuation of the 
British commander at various times had saved the cause of Inde- 
pendence from utter ruin. His appeal had some effect upon Con- 
gress, and they issued orders for enlistments during the war, and 
voted that all officers should have half-pay for life. 

During the autumn, Holland, which had long been favorable to 
the Americans, cast off its disguise, and came out boldly an open 
enemy to Great Britain. This event, and the formation of the 
Armed Neutrality,* gave the Americans great hopes, amid all their 
distresses and reverses, and they looked with confidence for a termi- 
nation of the war early in the ensuing year, when the French troops 
already here, and others that were expected, should be put in opera- 
tion. 

Henry Laurens, the late President of Congress, was appointed 
Minister to Holland, for the purpose of effecting commercial treaties, 
making a loan, and negotiating for an acknowledgment on the part of 
the States-General of the Independence of the United States. The 
Minister embarked at Philadelphia, carrying with him papers con- 
ferring extraordinary discretionary powers upon him, but the vessel 
in which he sailed was captured by two British frigates. Laurens 

* The confederacy, so called, of the northern European powers against England, 
was commenced by the Empress Catharine, of Russia, in 1780. This continued 
until near the close of 1781. Again in the year 1S00, the confederacy was renew- 
ed, and treaties entered into to cause their flags to be respected by the belligerent 
powers. But the doctrine that neutral flags protect neutral bottoms was not 
regarded as orthodox by England, and Nelson and Parker destroyed the fleet of 
Denmark before Copenhagen, on the 2d of April, 1S01. In consequence, that 
power was obliged to secede from the alliance, and soon after, the Armed Neutral- 
ity was dissolved. 



326 



THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 



[1780. 



Capture of Ex-President Laurens while on his way to Holland. 



cast the box containing his papers into the sea, but it was recovered, 
and instantly forwarded to the British government, together with Mr. 
Laurens, who, after an examination, was committed to the tower on 
a charge of high treason. As soon as the British government dis- 
covered that Holland was encouraging American privateers, and had 
actually commenced the negotiation of a treaty wi;h Congress, they 
declared war against that power, and thus, at the close of 1780, 
England was involved in hostilities with the three most powerful 
nations of Europe. In proportion as necessity for strength increased, 
England seemed to put forth new and vigorous exertions. Parlia- 
ment voted large supplies of money and men for the United Service,* 
and extensive preparations were made for the ensuing campaign in 
America. 

* Ninety-one thousand men was named as the naval force for the year 1781. 




Washington's Head. quarters at Tappan 



EVENTS OF 1781. 




John Jay— General Thomas Sumter— General Daniel Morgan. 



CHAPTER XI. 

HE balance of Destiny seemed to be equi- 
poised at the beginning of 1781, and to 
human judgment success appeared as likely 
to crown the efforts of the oppressor as those 
of the oppressed. The independence of the 
States seemed as remote as ever, and the 
prospect of ultimate triumph was gloomy 
indeed. The condition of the army was 
deplorable, and the heroism of suffering was 
manifest in all its intensity upon every side. The contrast, too, 
which the enemy presented, brought out the poverty and the patriot- 
ism of the Republican army in bolder relief. While the former 




328 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1781. 

Revolt of the Pennsylvania troops. Their treatment of British emissaries. 

possessed every comfort in abundance, being fed and clothed by a 
wealthy and powerful mother, the latter were enduring intense suf- 
fering from want of clothing, and provisions, and pay for their ser- 
vices. So pressing became these wants at last, that active mutiny 
pervaded the American army, and an event transpired which filled 
the country with alarm. 

On the first of January the whole Pennsylvania line, stationed at 
Morristown, consisting of about thirteen hundred troops, paraded 
under arms, refused further obedience to orders, and declared their 
intention to march to Philadelphia and demand from Congress a 
redress of grievances.* They marched in a body towards Prince- 
ton with six field-pieces, but through the prudent management of 
General Wayne,! they were not only restrained from acts of violence 
on their march, but were brought to a parley and induced to listen to 
terms of compromise. Washington, on hearing of the revolt, recom- 
mended Wayne not to use force, for their number was too formida- 
ble and their complaints too just to risk the hazard of such a step. 
He advised Wayne to get from them a written statement of their 
grievances, and promised to present them candidly to Congress and 
the Assembly of Pennsylvania. This course had its intended effect, 
and a deputation from Congress met them at Princeton, and induced 
them to agree to a compromise, by which their immediate necessi- 
ties were relieved, and provision made for their future pay. The 
revolters exhibited a spirit worthy of the soldiers of the War of 
Independence, for when their grievances were only in part redressed, 
they cheerfully returned to duty, and indignantly repulsed the imputa- 
tion of a design to go over to the enemy. J 

* They complained, with truth, that their pay was in arrears ; that they were 
obliged to receive it in depreciated currency, and that they were detained beyond 
their time of enlistment. 

f In an attempt to compel them to desist, a captain was killed, and several others 
were wounded. General Wayne presented his pistols as if about to fire on them. 
With their bayonets at his breast they exclaimed : " We love and respect you ; but 
if you fire you are a dead man. We are not going to the enemy ; on the contrary, 
were they now to come out, you should see us fight under your orders with as much 
alacrity as ever ; but we will no longer be amused ; we are determined on obtaining 
what is our just due." 

X On hearing of this mutiny, Sir Henry Clinton sent some emissaries from his 
camp at New York, with a proposition to their leaders to join him, and making 
promises of ample remuneration to all the mutineers in case they accepted the pro- 
posals. But the base proposition was indignantly spurned. One of the leaders 
addressed the soldiers and said, " See, comrades, he takes us to be traitors ! Let us 
show him that America has no truer friends than we." They immediately seized 
the emissaries and delivered them up to Wayne, who caused them to be tried, and 
they were executed as spies. The mutineers being offered a reward for appre- 
hending the spies, nobly refused it, saying that necessity had forced them to demand 



chap. x:.J EVENTS OF 1781. 329 

Financial operations of Robert Morris. Expedition of Arnold against Virginia. 

A similar revolt was undertaken by the New Jersey troops a few 
days after, but through the vigilant preparations for such an event 
by Washington, it was speedily crushed. Two of the ringleaders 
were tried and executed, and by these summary proceedings the 
spirit of mutiny was subdued. 

These events aroused the people and Congress to more vigorous 
action, and efforts hitherto unprecedented to raise money and supply 
the wants of the army were put forth. Taxes, were imposed and 
cheerfully acquiesced in; a Commissioner was sent to Europe to ne- 
gotiate loans of money and obtain military supplies :* and, during the 
year, the Bank of North America was established, under the super- 
vision of Robert Morris, a wealthy merchant of Philadelphia, to 
whose superintendence Congress had recently intrusted the Treasu- 
ry. There can be little doubt that it was principally owing to the 
financial operations of this distinguished patriot that the American 
army was not disbanded by its own act, and that Congress was 
enabled to commence offensive operations on the opening of the 
spring campaign for this year. He assumed the collection of taxes 
and the supply of the army with flour, and used his ample private 
fortune and his personal credit, without stint, to sustain the govern- 
ment. 

Arnold began the work of his royal purchaser early in January 
of this year. He was despatched to Virginia with a corps of about 
sixteen hundred men, tories and English, and a number of armed 
vessels, for the purpose of desolating the country. He entered 
Hampton Roads on the first of January, and ascending the James 
River, reached Richmond on the fifth, where he destroyed all the 
public stores in the vicinity, and private property to a large amount. 
Jefferson, then Governor of the State, called upon the militia to 
defend Richmond, but they so tardily obeyed the summons, that he 
was obliged to leave the city to its fate.f It was about one half 



justice from Cor.gress, but they desired no reward for doing their duty to their 
bleeding country." 

* Spain had loaned only fourteen thousand dollars, when nearly half a million 
was the amount asked, and France seemed to feel that she had done quite enough 
in sending her fleets and armies to America. Colonel John Laurens, son of the 
ex-President, was, in this extremity, sent on a special commission to France, and, 
contrary to usual etiquette, he presented his memorial in person to the King. He 
succeeded in obtaining a subsidy of six millions livres ($1,200,000), with a further 
sum by way of loan, and guarantee for a Dutch loan of five millions guilders 
($2,000,000). This was intimated as being the very last pecuniary aid that could 
be granted. — Sparks's Diplomatic Correspondence, vol. iii., p. 190. 

f Jefferson, after causing some of the public stores to be removed into the coun- 
try, fled from the city at evening, with his Council and Secretaries. 



330 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1781. 

Attempt to capture Arnold and his army. Destruction of property on the James River. 

, m destroyed by the traitor's torch. Arnold encamped at Ports- 

a Jan. 20. i i_ • ' i • • • 

mouthy where he was joined by reinforcements that swelled 
his number to about two thousand. 

Washington now conceived the design of capturing Arnold with 
all his army, by investing them by sea and land. He desired Des- 
touches, who succeeded Ternay in the command of the French fleet, 
to send an armament to the Chesapeake to co-operate with La Fay- 
ette, whom he intended to despatch with a competent force to main- 
, _, tain the investment by land. But the French Admiral sent 6 

b Feb. 9. . J 

only a sixty-four gun-ship and two frigates, which being 
incompetent for the occasion, returned to Newport. After a per- 
sonal conference between Washington and the French officers, it was 
agreed to send about eleven hundred of De Rochambeau's troops, 
under the command of the Baron de Viomenil, escorted by the whole 
of the French fleet. Destouches sailed on the eighth of March, and 
on the sixteenth he was met by Admiral Arbuthnot, who immediately 
attacked him. After a battle of more than an hour, the French fleet 
bore away and returned to Newport. Thus Arnold escaped from 
the danger of falling into the hands of his countrymen.* 

Clinton, still having in view a diversion in favor of the army of the 
south, sent thither General Phillips, f with about two thou- 

c March 26. 

sand five hundred men, who joined Arnold at Portsmouth. 
Phillips took the command, overran the whole country between the 
James and York rivers, seized the large town of Petersburgh, d 
also Chester Court-house, and other places, and destroyed a 
great quantity of shipping and stores. They then proceeded towards 
Richmond to complete its destruction, but on arriving at Manchester, 
on the opposite side of the James River, they found that La Fayette 
had entered Richmond the preceding evening, where his regular 
force was joined by about two thousand militia and some dragoons. 
Phillips and Arnold, after burning the stores and a great quantity of 
tobacco at Manchester, retired to Bermuda Hundred, and soon after- 
wards re-embarked their troops and proceeded down the river, when 
Cornwallis, who was at Wilmington, gave them notice that he was 
about marching into Virginia. They then returned to Petersburgh 
to await his arrival from the Carolinas. As this movement was 
subsequent to other important ones at the south, we will now turn 
our attention to operations in that quarter. 

* It is related that a militia officer whom Arnold held as a prisoner at Portsmouth, 
was asked by the traitor what the Americans would do if they should catch him? 
He answered, " They would cut off your leg wounded while fighting for your coun- 
try, and bury it with the honors of war, and then hang the rest of you !" 

t Phillips was among the officers captured at Saratoga. 



chap, xi.] EVENTS OF 1781. 331 

Operations at the South. Battle of the Covvpens. 

As already staled in the preceding chapter, General Gates was 
superseded by General Greene, after the disastrous conflict at Cam- 
den. Greene established his head-quarters at Charlotte, where 
he collected his whole force, amounting to only about two thousand 
men. Notwithstanding this extreme feebleness in numbers, he 
despatched General Morgan to the western frontier of South Caro- 
lina, where the British and tories were committing great devastations, 
to arrest their operations. 

On the eleventh of January, General Leslie, with about fifteen 
hundred men, joined Cornwallis, and they prepared to march imme- 
diately into North Carolina, and press forward into Virginia. But 
Cornwallis was unwilling to allow Morgan to remain in his rear, and 
sent Tarleton to dislodge, and if possible, completely break up his 
forces — " to push him to the utmost." Colonel Washington, a nephew 
of the Commander-in-chief, was with Morgan, and they had a 
pretty large force of cavalry and riflemen, but the superior numbers 
of Tarleton obliged them at first to retreat. Tarleton hotly pursued 
them, and on reaching a place called the Cowpens, about three miles 
from the division line between North and South Carolina, 

a Jan. 17. 

Morgan wheeled and gave battle." The first furious onset 
of the enemy caused the Americans to yield, and at the same 
lime a party of the Republican regulars were dispersed and pur- 
sued by British cavalry under Ogilvie. Morgan rallied his men, 
and in one general charge upon the British lines they dispersed 
the enemy in every direction. Tarleton's squadron of cavalry had 
not yet encountered the Americans, and seeing the panic of the 
British militia and the impetuous advance of the former they fled 
with the greatest precipitation. Quarter being promised to the 
enemy, a large number surrendered themselves prisoners of war. 
Colonel Washington pursued Tarleton several miles and slightly 
wounded him, but, with the most of his cavalry, he reached the camp 
of Cornwallis in safety. In this battle, the South Carolina militia 
under Colonel Pickens showed great bravery, as well as a body of 
cavalry under Colonel Howard. They proved that Tarleton's legion 
was not invincible. The British had ten commissioned officers and 
one hundred and twenty-nine privates killed, and twenty-nine officers 
and two hundred privates wounded. The Americans lost twelve men 
killed and sixty wounded. The Republicans took five hundred pri- 
soners and a large quantity of arms and ammunition.* This battle, 



* Eight hundred stand of arms, one hundred dragoon horses, thirty-five baggage- 
wagons, and two standards, fell into their hands. Two brass cannons which were 
taken from Burgoyne and captured by Cornwallis, at Camden, again became the 

22 



332 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1781. 

Morgan's retreat across the Catawba. Arrival of Greene, and retreat to the Yadkin. 

it has been justly remarked, proved, in the end, nearly as disastrous 
to Cornwallis as the battle of Bennington did to Burgoyne. 

As soon as Cornwallis heard of the defeat of Tarleton, and the 
attendant disasters at the Cowpens, he determined to take the field 
in person, and having been reinforced by Leslie, he felt confident 
that he could soon subdue the whole country south of Virginia. 
His first effort was to surprise Morgan and recapture the prisoners 
whom he had sent on towards Charlotteville, in Virginia ; and 
accordingly he destroyed all his heavy baggage, crossed the 
Catawba River a and endeavored by rapid marches, to inter- 
cept his (Morgan's) retreat towards the head-quarters of Greene. 
But Morgan was as vigilant as he was brave, and by well-executed 
and rapid marches, he succeeded in reaching the fords of 
the Catawba* * about two hours before the vanguard of the 
enemy appeared in sight. It was quite dark when Cornwallis 
reached the bank of the river, and feeling very confident that he 
could easily overtake the flying Americans in the morning, he halted 
there for the night. Before morning, a heavy rain which had oc- 
curred in the mountains above, so swelled the stream that it was 
impossible to cross it without boats, and these, the Americans had 
been careful to take on the opposite side. Morgan hurried the 
British prisoners forward, and commenced preparations to defend the 
passage of the fords and keep Cornwallis at bay until General 
Greene should arrive. Much to his surprise and pleasure, 
Greene made his appearance two days afterwards, and took 
the command, having left the main division of his army opposite 
Cheraw, upon the banks of the Little Pedee, about ten miles south 
from the North Carolina line. 

As soon as the waters subsided, Cornwallis commenced 
fording the stream/ which he effected, notwithstanding the 
opposition of the Carolina militia, who were ordered to guard the 
ford. General Davidson, their commander, was killed, and finding 
resistance dangerous, Greene, with the whole American force, re- 
treated towards the Yadkin. He reached that river on the evening 
of the second of February, and during that night and the next morn- 
ing, succeeded in crossing it, with all his army, upon " flats." Gene- 
ral O'Hara, at the head of the British van, pressed so closely upon 
him that he captured a few baggage-wagons which the Americans 

property of the Americans. Congress honored General Morgan with a gold medal ; 
and medals of silver were presented to Colonels Washington and Howard, a sword 
to Colonel Pickens, and a Brevet-Major's commission to Edward Giles, Morgan's 
aide-de-camp. 

* At Gowan's Ford, thirty miles north from the boundary of South Carolina. 



ckaf. xi.] EVENTS OF 1781. 333 

Greene's retreat across the Dan. Cornwallis's return to Hillsborough. 

were unable to take over before he arrived. Again Cornwallis , not 
doubting his ability to overtake Greene in the morning, halted for 
the night, but before dawn the rain poured down in torrents, and the 
Yadkin was filled to the brim, and rendered entirely unfordable ! 
Still the British commander was not disheartened, and, marching 
ten miles up the river, where he found a fordable place, he crossed 
over and commenced a rapid pursuit of the Americans, determined 
to compel them to fight before they could get reinforcements from 
Virginia. 

On the seventh of February, Greene reached Guilford Court- 
house, where he was joined by the other division of his army under 
Huger and Williams.* As about five hundred of the American 
army were militia, while all of the British were regulars, Greene 
was unwilling to hazard a battle, and therefore continued his retreat 
towards Irwin's Ferry, upon the river Dan, on the southern boundary 
of Virginia, about seventy miles from Guilford. So close again 
was the pursuit of Cornwallis, that Greene's rear had scarcely 
touched the northern banks of the Dan when the enemy's 

a Feb. 15. 

van reached the southern bank. a The river was not forda- 
ble at the time, and the Americans, having taken all the boats across, 
had, for the third time, during this remarkable retreat, a deep river 
placed between them and the pursuing enemy ! So tangible was 
the hand of Providence in this, that it was regarded throughout the 
whole country as a mark of special favor to the American cause, 
and in no small degree strengthened the hopes of the Republicans.! 

Cornwallis, having thought it impossible for Greene to escape 
across the Dan into Virginia, was greatly disappointed, and gave up 
the pursuit. He returned to Hillsborough, in North Carolina, where 
he raised the royal standard and endeavored to rally around it the 
tories of the south, and also to win over the lukewarm republicans. 
Greene, in the meanwhile,- reposed himself and his weary army in 
the rich valleys of Halifax in Virginia, in the midst of sympathizing 
patriots. 

As soon as Greene was rested and had received reinforcements. 



* His whole force now consisted of about twenty-three hundred men. Cornwallis 
had about twenty-five hundred men with him. 

f Both armies suffered greatly from the inclemency of the weather, during this 
retreat of nearly two hundred miles. The enemy, however, was well clothed and 
fed, while the Americans were nearly destitute of clothing and shoes, yet during 
this retreat not a single man deserted. This fact is well established by official 
reports, yet a late British writer* has asserted that " the militia had nearly all 
deserted Greene" when he reached the Dan. 

* See Pic. His. of the Reign of Geo. HI., vol i , p. 452. 



334 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1781. 

Greene's return into North Carolina. Battle of Guilford Court-house. 

which swelled his army to about four thousand four hundred men, he 
determined to recross the Dan into North Carolina, and commence 
offensive operations. Being informed that Tarleton was in the 
district between the Haw and Deep rivers, inciting the tories to join 
the royal standard, he sent Lieutenant-Colonel Lee with a body of 
militia and cavalry, to oppose his movements. Lee crossed the Dan 
on the twenty-first of February, and by a well-executed stratagem* 
succeeded in destroying, capturing, and dispersing nearly four hun- 
dred tories who were on their way to join Tarleton. General 
Greene, with the main division of his army, crossed the Dan 

a Feb. 22. . 

the next day," and pushed on to Guilford Court-house, 

within ten miles of the enemy's camp. He reached there on the 

fifteenth of March, and drawing his army up in three lines, awaited 

the attack of Cornwallis, who, on the very day of his arri- 

6 March M. . . , , . .'. ' J J , , . 

val, marched against him. Lne enemy approached in 
three lines, the Hessians on the right, the English in the centre, and 
a brigade, composed chiefly of tories, on the left. The battle 
was desperately fought for about an hour and a half, when Greene 
ordered a retreat. Both sides claimed the victory,! but if the loss 
of men is the criterion for determining, the triumph surely belonged 
to the Americans. They lost about four hundred regulars and mili- 
tia ; the British lost nearly six hundred in killed, wounded, and 
missing. Great skill and bravery were exhibited on both sides, and, 
considered in all its features, this conflict, for courage and skilful 
manoeuvring, was equal to any during the war. 

Notwithstanding his claim of victory, Cornwallis retreated towards 
Wilmington, closely pursued by General Greene. At Ramsay's 
Mills, on the Deep River, Greene halted, and while Cornwallis con- 
tinued to retreat towards Wilmington, he turned southward with the 
intention of driving from South Carolina the division of the British 

* Colonel Pyle was in command of the tory recruits, and he sent forward three 
of their number to find out Tarleton's camp. Lee's legion were dressed very much 
like that of Tarleton, and the young tories, meeting them, mistook them for the 
British troops. Lee took advantage of this mistake, and immediately sent word to 
Pickens, who was in command of riflemen in the rear, to keep out of sight in the 
woods, until they should receive a given signal. The young men addressed Lee as 
Tarleton, which name he at once assumed, and sent word to Pyle " to draw out his 
forces on the side of the road, so as to give convenient room for his troops to take 
the right position." Pyle expressed himself " happy to comply with the wishes of 
Colonel Tarleton," and accordingly, with smiling countenance, Lee and his legion 
defiled in front of the tories. When arrived at a proper position, a signal was 
given for the riflemen to appear, and all fell upon the hapless tories with great fury, 
and routed them with dreadful slaughter. 

f Three days after the battle, Cornwallis issued a proclamation, boasting of vic- 
tory, calling upon all good citizens to join his standard, and offering pardon to all 
" rebels" who should lav down their arms. 




IWm OF HOB KIRKS HILL BATTLE OE GUILFORD VM 




• Dp $ b s F&ti r v 



mMHM 



SAjrUfican Uorpif-q I 



iQTEHATlONS bKfi, B HUDSOMMl SIEGE of YQftKTOWX 



chap, xi.] EVENTS OF 1781. 335 

Battle of Hobkirk's Hill. Ca pture of several British forts. 

army there, under the command of Lord Rawdon. On his march 
thitherward, many of the borderers who composed the chief bulk 
of Greene's militia, left and returned to their homes ; and when he 
approached the vicinage of the British army, his force, though small, 
consisted almost entirely of regulars. 

Early in April, Greene arrived at a place called Hobkirk's Hill, 
about a mile from Rawdon's encampment at Camden. He establish- 
ed his head-quarters there, but was soon after attacked by aA ril25 
the British commander, and another desperate battle en- 
sued. For a long time, the result was doubtful. Greene, anticipat- 
ing victory, sent a detachment to cut off the expected retreat of 
Rawdon, but a regiment from Maryland becoming confused by a 
furious charge of the enemy, disconcerted the others, and soon 
the rout of the Americans became general. But Greene so far 
restored order that he retreated with deliberation, and succeeded in 
carrying off six English officers prisoners. He retired with his 
army to Rugely's Mills, where, after some days, Rawdon, who had 
received a reinforcement of four hundred men (whom Marion had 
endeavored in vain to intercept), attempted to surprise him at night. 
Greene retreated to Saunder's Creek, where Rawdon made an in- 
effectual effort to dislodge him, and who, after burning the jail, mills, 
private houses, and some of his own stores, evacuated Cam- 
den, 6 and retreated south of the Santee River. 

During the march of Greene to Hobkirk's Hill, he despatched 
Colonel Lee with his legion to join General Marion on the Santee, 
for the purpose of operating against a chain of British forts esta- 
blished between the Santee and the Congaree, the most important 
of which was Fort Watson on Wright's Bluff. Marion and Lee, 
although provided with nothing but muskets and rifles,* 
closely invested that fort. c After a resistance of eight days, 
the garrison was obliged to yield, and one hundred and four- 

iii, r o d April 23. 

teen men surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Seve- 
ral other British posts fell in rapid succession before the victorious 
Americans. Orangeburgh surrendered to Sumter on the eleventh 
of May ; Fort Motte to Marion and Lee on the twelfth ; the post at 
Nelson's Ferry was evacuated on the fourteenth by the British ; 
Fort Granby capitulated to Lee on the fifteenth ; and on the twenty - 

* The method employed by the besiegers in their attack upon the several forts, 
was a novel one. As they were armed with only muskets and rifles, they erected 
towers which overlooked the forts, and thence picked off the enemy in detail. At 
the siege of Augusta two of those towers were erected within thirty feet of the 
parapet of the fort. From there, the American riflemen, with deadly aim, shot 
the enemy, whenever a man dared to show himself. 



336 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1781. 

Siege of Ninety-Six. British officer dining w ; th Marion. 

first, a detachment of Lee's Legion under Captain Rudolph, reduced 

the fort at Silver Bluffs. Early in June, Lee and Pickens, having 

united their forces, penetrated into Georgia, and attacked Fort Corn- 

wallis, at Augusta. The garrison, after a stout resistance, 

surrendered," and over three hundred men became prisoners 

of war. The Americans lost during the siege about forty men. 

Marion, in the meanwhile, closely invested Georgetown,* and the 

garrison, learning the downfall of the other posts in the 

b June 3. °. . . ° . _ - . . . r 

vicinity, evacuated the town. Ihe British were now con- 
fined to the three posts, — Ninety-six, Eutaw Springs, and Charleston. 

While these occurrences were transpiring in Georgia, Greene 
marched against the strong fortress of Ninety-six, in which Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Cruger, with about five hundred men, was advan- 
tageously posted. He kept up a siege for nearly a month, when, on 
learning the approach of Lord Rawdon with about two thousand 
t June is tr00 P s » ne determined to storm the place. He began the 
assault with great vigor/ but was obliged to raise the siege, 
and on the nineteenth, he retreated across the Saluda. His loss 
was about one hundred and fifty men. On this occasion Kosciusko, 
the Polish general, particularly distinguished himself, and enhanced, 
if possible, the high esteem in which he was held by Washington 
and his officers. 

Rawdon supposed Greene had retreated out of South Carolina, 

* Marion, by his daring and almost always successful exploits, became the terror 
of the enemy at the south, particularly of the tories. For along time he encamped 
upon Snow's Island, a small spot of terra firma in a morass at the confluence of 
Lynch's Creek and the Pedee. There, assisted by natural defences, he made his 
impregnable fortress, and with his daring little band sallied forth as occasion offered, 
to harass the superior foe, to cut off his convoys, or to break up, before they could 
well embody, the gathering and undisciplined tories. It was while encamped there 
towards the close of the preceding year, that an event occurred which, insignificant 
in itself, is peculiarly illustrative of the heroism displayed by the Americans at that 
period, under the greatest privations. A young British officer was sent from the 
post at Georgetown, to Marion's swamp encampment, to effect an exchange of pri- 
soners. He had never seen Marion, and was greatly astonished at finding such a 
noted man so diminutive in size, especially when compared to the British generals 
then in the field, whose average weight, it is asserted, was more than 200 pounds. 
Having finished their business, the young officer prepared to depart, but was invited 
by Marion to stop and dine. The invitation was accepted, and the entertainment 
was served up on pieces of bark. It consisted entirely of roasted potatoes, of 
which the General ate heartily, and requested his guest to do the same, adding, 
" hunger is the best sauce." " But, surely, General," said the astonished officer, 
" this cannot be your ordinary fare ?" " Indeed, sir, it is," he replied, " and we 
are fortunate, on this occasion, entertaining company, to have more than our usual 
allowance." It is said that the young officer, on returning to his post, threw up his 
commission, declaring that men who could contentedly endure such privations, were 
not to be subdued. — See Simms's Life of Marion, pp. 1GS-1S0. 




British Officer invited to Din= r.-ith Marica. P. 33S. 



chap, xi.] EVENTS OF 1781. 339 

Battle of Eutaw Springs. Execution of Colonel Hayne. 

and divided his forces, fixing a detachment upon the Congaree ; but 
he was soon undeceived by the sudden attack of Lee upon a fora- 
ging party, within a mile of the British camp. About forty of 
Rawdon's cavalry were captured. Rawdon retreated to Orange- 
burgh and summoned Cruger to join him with the garrison of Ninety- 
six, which junction was effected, although much delayed by the 
attempts of Greene to prevent it. At Orangeburgh Rawdon received 
reinforcements from Charleston under Colonel Stewart, and Greene, 
unable to withstand the combined armies, retired to the 
high hills of the Santee," where his troops would avoid the 
prevailing sickness of the season in the low countries. He en- 
deavored, by sending out detachments under Marion, Sumter, and 
Lee, to draw Rawdon from his position. They effectually inter- 
rupted the communication between Charleston and the British camp, 
on discovering which, the enemy evacuated all their posts north of 
the Santee and Congaree, and retired to Eutaw Springs, about fifty 
miles from Charleston.* Greene pursued them, and being b s t 7 
joined by Marion, 6 resolved to attack them at once. 

The next day c the Americans, numbering about two c sept. 8. 
thousand, moved to the attack. An advance guard of the 
British were compelled to fall back, and soon the battle became 
general. The contest lasted nearly four hours, and great bravery 
was exhibited on both sides. Colonel Campbell, who with Colonel 
Williams, was leading on the Maryland and Virginia regiments, was 
mortally wounded. Learning that the British were dispersing, he, 
like Wolfe at Quebec under similar circumstances, exclaimed, 

* Lord Rawdon here resigned his command to Colonel Stewart, and soon after- 
wards returned to England. While he was at Charleston, a scene of cruelty 
occurred, which, it is said, he tried in vain to prevent. When Charleston surren- 
dered to the British, it was stipulated that the citizens should be allowed to remain 
quiet, and not be called upon to take up arms for the crown. This contract was 
soon violated, and they were summoned to join the royal standard. Among them 
was Colonel Isaac Hayne, a man greatly beloved, and at that time living upon his 
plantation near the city. He was required to subscribe to an allegiance to the 
British crown and an agreement to bear arms in its support, or return to Charles- 
ton. To the last clause he objected, but being told that it would not be required 
of him, and anxious to be at home on account of his dying wife, he subscribed. 
But when, contrary to assurances, he was called upon to take up arms, he joined the 
Americans, and was soon after taken prisoner by the British. He was conducted to 
Colonel Balfour, the commandant of Charleston, who, after a mock trial, sentenced 
him to be hung. Many British and loyalist residents, with Governor Bull at their 
head, together with all the ladies of Charleston, petitioned for his life. His little 
children, whose mother had just been laid in the grave, implored their father's life 
upon their knees before Balfour, but all in vain. Lord Rawdon's interposition is 
doubtful : at any rate, he gave his sanction to the execution, and, under the plea of 
justice, the excellent Colonel Hayne was deprived of his life. 



340 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1781. 

Close of the War in South Carolina. Expedition of Cornvvallis into Virginia. 

" Then I die contented !" and immediately expired. The British 
were vigorously pursued by Lee, and upwards of five hundred were 
taken prisoners. Greene drew off his troops and retreated to the 
place of his encampment, upon the high hills of the Santee, and 
Stewart, during the night, retired to Monk's Corner. The loss of the 
British in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was upwards of eleven- 
hundred ; that of the Americans over five hundred, of which number 
there were sixty officers. 

"With the battle of Eutaw ended the campaign in South Carolina 
for the year — in fact no further hostilities occurred there during 
the war, and the British abandoned the open country and retired 
to Charleston. There was a great change in the circumstances of 
the two armies in this quarter at. the close of the year ; the British 
at the beginning of the campaign being in the possession of South 
Carolina and Georgia, but now occupying only the ports of Charles- 
ton and Savannah. We will now resume our narrative of events in 
Virginia. 

Cornwallis, late in April, left Wilmington, and marching northward, 
formed a junction with the forces of Phillips* and Arnold at Peters- 
burg;.' 1 He tried to bring La Fayette (then in command of 

a May 20. ° ° J 

about three thousand troops for the defence of Virginia) 
into an engagement, but failing in this he proceeded to overrun the 
country and spread desolation with fire and sword. One expedition 
under Tarleton penetrated to Charlottesville, took several members 
of the Virginia Assembly prisoners, and came very near capturing 
Governor Jefferson. Cornwallis, in the meantime, attempted to 
capture American stores at Albemarle Old Court-house, while 
La Fayette was effecting a junction with General Wayne with a 
reinforcement of eight hundred men of the Pennsylvania line, but 
was foiled by the active vigilance of the Marquis, who, after a 
rapid march, succeeded in encamping between his stores and the 
British lines. f The latter then retired to Richmond, and after cap- 
turing that place and Williamsburg, prepared to proceed to the sea- 
coast, pursuant to an order just received from Sir Henry Clinton, 
who, apprehending an attack from the combined American and 
French forces under Washington and Rochambeau, wished to have 
Cornwallis in a position to reinforce him if necessary. While 



* General Phillips died a few days before his arrival. 

f In consideration of the great military skill displayed by La Fayette during this 
campaign in Virginia, his King commanded the French Minister of War to 
express to the Marquis his approbation, and assure him that he should be 
raised to the rank of a Field Marshal of France, as soon as the American war 6hould 
terminate. 



chap, xi.] EVENTS OF 1781. 341 

British encampment at Yorktown. Junction of the American and French armies on the Hudson. 

proceeding from Williamsburg to Portsmouth he was ] 

attacked by La Fayette," whose force now numbered about 
four thousand men. Wayne led the vanguard, and supposing the 
body of the British army had crossed the James River, he pushed 
boldly forward to attack the loitering rear. He was greatly sur- 
prised to find the whole army there ; but he instantly conceived the 
best mode of extricating himself to be a sudden attack before 
retreating. He executed the feat with admirable success, and 
Cornwallis, probably suspecting" an ambush, did not pursue him, 
but crossed the river and proceeded to Portsmouth. 4 Not 
pleased with Portsmouth as a place of residence for his 
army, he soon moved on to Yorktown, on the south side of the York 
River, and immediately commenced fortifying it. c Glou- 
cester Point, opposite Yorktown, was occupied by Tarleton 
and a part of his legion. The whole British force in Virginia at 
this time was about, seven thousand men.* 

On the twenty-second of May Washington held a conference at 
Weathersfield, in Connecticut, with the French officers, and they 
agreed upon an early junction of the two armies upon the Hudson, 
for the purpose of either making a combined attack upon New York, 
or of marching southward against the enemy in Virginia and the 
Carolinas. Accordingly Washington drew his troops from their 
several quarters and took his first position at Peekskill, but soon 
afterwards he advanced southward towards New York and encamped 
at Phillipsburgh, d near Dobb's Ferry, nearly twelve miles d July 4 , 
from the north end of York Island, where he was joinede 
by Rochambeau and his troops, who had marched in e July 6 - 
four divisions from Hartford. Reflecting that the hot season 
at the south would be fatal to many of the northern troops, 
Washington prepared to attack Clinton at New York, rather than 
proceed to Virginia. The Americans encamped in two lines, with 
their right resting on the Hudson, and the French, in a single line, 
occupied the left, extending to the Bronx River. General Lincoln 
was despatched with about eight hundred men in boats, as an 
advance division to make the attack.. They landed and took post at 
Kingsbridge, but owing to the delay of the Duke de Lauzun, who 
was to fall upon a corps of the enemy at Morrisania, nothing but 

* In the bold and rapid march of Cornwallis from North Carolina into Virginia, 
a vast amount of public and private property was laid waste. The growing crops 
were destroyed upon the ground, the barns were burned, and all the fences and 
landmarks of the plantations were scattered to the winds. It is estimated that in 
the course of the invasion of Collier, Leslie, Arnold, Phillips, and Cornwallis, about 
thirty thousand slaves were carried off from Virginia, and property destroyed to the 
amount of fifteen millions of dollars ! 



342 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1781. 

Letter from Count <le Grasse. March of the combined army for Virginia 

some slight skirmishing occurred. Washington pushed forward 
Jul 21 w * tn tne mam arm y t0 within four miles of Kingsbridge," to 
assist Lincoln if necessary, but during the night he returned 
to Dobb's Ferry, and in this position the two armies remained about 
six weeks. The American Commander, observing how tardily his 
call for troops was responded to, and informed of the strength of the 
enemy, who had just been reinforced, resolved not to make an attack 
until the arrival of the French fleet from the West Indies, under 
the Count de Grasse, then daily expected. At length he received a 
letter from De Grasse,* informing him that he was about to 
sail with his whole fleet, and three thousand two hundred 
land troops, for the Chesapeake. Washington at once resolved to 
abandon the project of an attack upon New York, and with the 
cordial co-operation of De Rochambeau, proceeded without delay 
towards Virginia, under the general marching command of Lincoln, 
with the whole of the French army, and as many Americans as 
could be spared from the posts on the Hudson.* Washington and 
De Rochambeau preceded the armyt and reached La Fayette's 
head-quarters at Williamsburg on the fourteenth of Sep- 
tember, where, soon after, the whole army arrived.^ c 
As soon as Clinton learned positively the destination of the com- 
bined armies, he sent Arnold on a plundering expedition against 
Connecticut, hoping thereby to draw off a part of the American 
troops, and perhaps cause Washington to return ; but in this he 
was disappointed. Arnold landed at the mouth of the 
Thames'* and marched against Fort Trumbull, at New 
London, fourteen miles south of Norwich, the native place of the 
traitor. The fort was evacuated on his approach, and he proceeded 
in imitation of Tryon, whom he had opposed on a similar 
expedition, to lay the town in ashes. c A very large amount 

* The forces on the Hudson were left in command of General Heath, one of the 
most useful officers of the Revolution. 

t On his way, Washington made a flying visit to his residence at Mount Vernon 
for the first time in six years, so completely had he devoted himself to the service 
of his country. 

X The march of this army through a fertile country, a distance of more than five 
hundred miles, was remarkable for its order and discipline. It was at a season 
" when," says Ramsay, " the most delicious productions of nature growing on and 
near the public highways, presented both opportunity and. temptation to gratify 
their appetites. Yet so complete was their discipline, that in this long march 
scarce an instance could be produced of an apple or a peach being taken without 
the consent of the inhabitants." — Hist. Revolution, vol. ii., p. 267. The French 
were particularly scrupulous. At Rhode Island, " the Indians expressed their 
astonishment at nothing but to see still laden with fruit the trees that overhung 
the tents which the soldiers had occupied for three months." — De Rochambeau's 
Narrative. 



chap, xi.] EVENTS OF 1781. 3<3 

Arnold's expedition into Connecticut. Siege of Yorktown. 

of public and private property was destroyed. On the same day a 
party of British troops attacked Fort Griswold, opposite Fort Trum- 
bull, which was surrendered after an obstinate resistance by the gar- 
rison. Yet, after the surrender, all but about forty of the garrison 
were cruelly massacred.* The enemy lost in the siege, forty-three 
killed, and one hundred and forty-five wounded. Arnold, having 
done all the mischief in his power, and glutted his vengeance, 
returned to New York. 

In the meanwhile, the Count de Grasse, with twenty-six ships of 
the line and some frigates, entered Chesapeake Bay, having had a 
brief engagement with the British Admiral, Graves, off the capes. 
Count de Barras, with the French squadron from Newport, arrived 
at the same time. Three thousand troops under the Marquis de St. 
Simon, embarked from the French fleet in light boats, ascended the 
James River, and joined the allied armies at Williamsburgh. The 
whole combined forces then took up their line of march for Yorktown, 
and on the thirtieth of September completely invested the place. 
The Americans were stationed on the right, and the French on the 
left, in a semicircular line, each wing resting on York River. The 
post at Gloucester was invested by Lauzun's legion, marines from 
the fleet, and Virginian militia, under the command of M. de Choisy, 
a brigadier general in the French service. 

The works erected for the security of Yorktown, on the right, were 
redoubts and batteries, and a line of stockade in the rear, while in 
front was a marshy ravine, over which was placed a large redoubt. 
The Americans began operations on the evening of their arrival, and 
so silently and perseveringly did they work at their first .parallel, 
that the next morning at dawn, greatly to the surprise and alarm of 
the enemy, it was so far completed as to protect the besiegers from 
the shots of the batteries. On the ninth and tenth of October, the 
Americans and French opened their batteries, and their shells and 
hot shot reached the English ships in the harbor, and destroyed a 
forty-four gun ship and a transport. The siege lasted seventeen 
days, the principal events during the time being the storming of two 
redoubts simultaneously ; one by a party of American light infantry, 
the other by a detachment of French grenadiers and chasseurs ; the 
former headed by La Fayette, the latter by the Baron de Viomenil. 
The advanced corps of the Americans was led by Col. Alexander 

* Colonel Ledyard who commanded the garrison, on being asked by a British 
officer, "Who commands ?" replied, "I did, but you do now," at the same time 
handing him his sword. The miscreant 'immediately plunged it into Ledyard's 
bosom, and then a general massacre ensued. This event greatly exasperated the 
Americans, and disgusted the loyalists. 



344 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1781. 



Surrender of Cornwallis. 



Hamilton, and in the action, Colonels Laurens, Gimat, and Barber, 
were distinguished.* 

The siege was vigorously kept up until the seventeenth of 
October, when Cornwallis proposed a cessation of hostilities, and the 
appointment of a commission to conclude upon terms for surrender- 
ing the posts of Yorktown and Gloucester.! The proposition was 
accepted by Washington, commissioners were appointed,! terms of 
surrender settled, and the articles were signed at the house of Mr 
Moore, near the battle-ground, on the nineteenth of October. 

According to the terms, all the troops in the garrison were to be 
made prisoners of war, and marched into the country ; the artillery, 
arms, military chest, and all munitions of war, with shipping, boats, 
furniture, and apparel, were to be delivered up ; the officers retain- 
ing their side-arms, and both officers and soldiers preserving their 
baggage and effects. The surrendering army was to receive the 
same honors as were granted by the British to the American garri- 
son at Charleston. On the afternoon of the day on which 
the capitulation was signed," the garrison marched out, and 
laid down their arms.§ The soldiers were surrendered to Washing- 
ton, and the shipping in the harbor to Count de Grasse.|| The whole 
number of prisoners was a little over seven thousand. The British 
lost during the siege in killed, between five and six hundred, the 
Americans lost about three hundred. % The allied army at the time 
of the attack, consisted of about seven thousand American regular 
troops, five thousand French, and four thousand militia. The 
British force consisted only of about one-half that number, and 
doubtless Cornwallis would have abandoned Yorktown before its 



* Sparks, p. 340. 

t On the evening of the sixteenth, the whole of the walls being nearly battered 
down, and almost every gun dismounted, by the heavy and incessant fire of a hun- 
dred pieces of ordnance, Cornwallis attempted to retreat by way of Gloucester, but 
a violent storm arose, which dispersed his boats, and he saw no other alternative 
than to surrender. 

\ The commissioners were Colonel Laurens and Viscount de Noailles on the part 
of the Americans and French, and Colonel Dundas and Major Ross on the part of the 
British. 

§ It is related that when the British soldiers were about to march out and lay 
down their arms, Washington said to the American army, " My boys, let there be 
no insults over a conquered foe ! When they lay down their arms don't huzza : 
posterity will huzza for you /" 

|| Congress passed a special vote of thanks to each of the commanders, and to the 
officers and troops ; presented Washington with two stands of colors ; gave Rocham- 
beau and de Grasse two field pieces each ; and resolved to erect a marble column 
upon the spot where the surrender took place. 

U Sparks, p. 343. 



• chap. xi. J EVENTS OF 1781. 347 

Rejoicings over the victory at Yorktown. Retirement of the combined armies into winter-quarters. 

investment, had he not confidently expected reinforcements from 
Clinton.* 

The surrender of Cornwallis sent a thrill of joy through the 
country, and, in effect, recovered into the power of Congress, the 
whole territory of the thirteen States.t Public celebrations were 
held — illuminations, bonfires, the roar of cannon, and the voice of 
oratory, everywhere testified the universal joy ; and Washington set 
apart a day for the performance of divine service in the army, enjoin- 
ing the troops " to engage in it with a serious deportment, and that 
sensibility of heart which the surprising and particular interposition 
of Providence in their favor claimed." As soon as Congress received 
intelligence of the joyful event, the members marched in procession 
to one of the principal churches in Philadelphia, and there publicly 
offered up thanksgiving to God for the signal success of the Ameri- 
can arms. They also appointed the thirteenth of December as a day 
for public thanksgiving and prayer throughout the Union. 

Washington endeavored, but in vain, to induce the Count de 
Grasse to remain and assist in the reduction of Charleston, or at 
least to aid in an attack upon Wilmington, in North Carolina, but he 
pleaded special engagements in the West Indies, and refused even to 
delay his departure long enough to take on board some troops to be 
landed at a more southerly port, to reinforce General Greene. De 
Grasse sailed immediately for the West Indies,* leaving 
with Rochambeau the three thousand land troops he brought 
with him. The French army were cantoned during the winter at 
Williamsburgh, in Virginia, whither the Yorktown prisoners were 
marched ; and the main body of the American army returned to its 
late position in New Jersey and upon the Hudson. A strong detach- 
ment under General St. Clair was sent to the south to strengthen 
the army of Greene.^ 

* The tardy movements of Sir Henry Clinton twice lost the British a large force ; 
first, nearly six thousand men at Saratoga ; and now more than seven thousand at 
Yorktown. On the very day Cornwallis surrendered, Clinton left New York with 
seven thousand men to reinforce him, but on reaching the Capes of the Chesapeake, 
he heard of the capture of Yorktown, and immediately returned to New York. 

t " The year 1781 terminated in all parts of the United States, in favor of the 
Americans. It began with weakness in Carolina, mutiny in New Jersey, and devas- 
tation in Virginia : nevertheless, at its close, the British were confined in their 
strongholds in or near New York, Charleston, and Savannah, and their whole army 
in Virginia was captured." — Ramsay, vol. ii., p. 275. 

X As soon as these various arrangements were made, Washington hastened to 
Eltham, where his wife was attending her dying son (and her only one), Mr. Custis. 
He was present at his death, and deep indeed was the hero's grief, for he had been 
the foster-father of the dying man from his early childhood, and he seemed as near 
to him as his own child. Mr. Custis was then a member of the Virginia Legislature, 



346 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1781: 

Proceedings in Parliament. Release of Ex-President Laurens. 

Parliament assembled on the twenty-seventh of November, and 
their first business was a consideration of the news of the disasters 
in America, which reached ministers officially on Sunday, the 
twenty-fifth.* Violent debates ensued, and Fox even went so far 
as to intimate that Lord North was in the pay of the French. The 
minister indignantly repelled the insinuation, and justified the war on 
the ground of its justice, and the maintenance of British rights. 
Upon this point, however, he was violently assailed by Burke, who 
exclaimed ; " Good God ! are we yet to be told of the rights for 
which we went to war ! Oh, excellent rights ! Oh, valuable rights ! 
Valuable you should be, for we have paid dear at parting with you. 
Oh, valuable rights ! that have cost Britain thirteen provinces, four 
islands,! one hundred thousand men and more than seventy millions 
(three hundred and fifty millions of dollars) of money !" The 
younger Pitt distinguished himself in this debate, and was a powerful 
aid to the opposition. On the thirtieth of November, the opposition 
proposed the bold measure (last adopted during the revolution of 
1688) of not granting supplies until the ministers should give a 
pledge to the people that the war in America should cease. This 
motion, however, was lost by a vote of nearly two to one. Several 
conflicting propositions were made by both parties, but without any 
definite result, and on the twentieth of December Parlia- 
ment adjourned to the twenty-first of January. 

The attention of Parliament was called, early in the session, to 
the case of Ex-President Laurens, still confined in the Tower ; and 
Burke presented a petition from the prisoner, 6 written with 
a black-lead pencil on the blank leaf of a book, asking leave 
to use pen, ink, and paper (which had hitherto been denied him), to 
draw a bill of exchange to procure some money. After much delay 
it was granted, and not long after, he was released on bail, in conse- 
quence of his bodily infirmities. He was soon afterwards exchanged 

and was only twenty-eight years of age when he died. He left four infant children, 
the two younger of whom (a son and daughter) were adopted by Washington. From 
Elthan he proceeded by way of Mount Vernon to Philadelphia, and was everywhere 
greeted with respect and veneration, on his journey, by all classes. Congress re- 
ceived him with marked honor, and greeted him with a congratulatory address by 
the President. 

* " I asked," says Wraxhall, " Lord George Germaine afterwards, how Lord North 
took the communication." " As he would have taken a cannon-ball in his breast," 
he replied, " for he opened his arms, exclaiming wildly, as he paced up and down 
the apartment a few minutes, ' Oh, God ! it is all over !' words which he repeated 
many times, under emotions of the deepest consternation and distress." — See JV. W. 
WraxhalVs Historical Memoirs of his own times." 

f He referred to the disasters in the West Indies, and the loss of Minorca in the 
Mediterranean 



zhav. xi.J EVENTS OF 1781. 349 

Exchange of Burgoyne. Naval operations. 

for Burgoyne, who, though at large in England, and constantly 
debating in the House of Commons on the side of the opposition, 
was still held as a prisoner upon parole. 

So much did the Americans rely upon the French navy to combat 
with the fleets of Great Britain, that the naval armament of the States 
never grew beyond a comparatively feeble infancy, yet it was none 
the less courageous than its maturer ally, and seldom avoided an 
engagement. Still, its operations were so limited, after the exploits 
of Jones, that a few words of notice will suffice. 

In June, 1780, the twenty-eight gun ship Trumbull, commanded 
by Captain Nicholson, attacked the British ship Walt, of greatly 
superior strength, and was disabled, but not captured. She lost 
thirty-two in killed and wounded ; the enemy lost ninety-two. In 
October, the sixteen-gun sloop Saratoga, Captain Young, captured 
a British ship and two brigs, but while convoying them into port, 
was overtaken by the seventy-four Intrepid, and the prizes were 
recaptured. The Saratoga escaped. On the second of April, 178], 
the Alliance, Captain Barry, captured two Guernsey privateers; and 
soon after, she captured two British men-of-war, one of which was 
retaken on its way to America. In June, the Confederacy, Captain 
Harding, was captured by two armed British vessels. In August, 
the Trumbull was captured by three British cruisers, off the Capes 
of the Delaware ; and on the sixth of September, the Congress, 
Captain Geddes, captured the British ship Savage, after a desperate 
encounter. She was afterwards recaptured. 



Moore's Houia-TotktorrD, Va. 



CLOSING EVENTS OF THE WAR. 




Henry Laurens— Thomas Mifflin— Lord Shelburne. 



CHAPTER XII. 



T is now our pleasing task to record the 
events that marked the closing scenes of 
the "War of Independence, which for seven 
long years had crushed to earth with mer- 
ciless tread, both the peaceful industry and 
its fruits, of the people of the American 
States. They sighed for peace, yet the 
peace for which they aspired was that alone 
which absolute political freedom and inde- 
pendence guarantees, without which no 

State can be truly prosperous — no people essentially happy. 

Notwithstanding the power of Great Britain within the domain of 

her ancient American States was completely paralysed, yet so 




352 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1782. 

Closing military movements at the South Case of Captain Huddy. 

frequently had the Republicans seen her break the thousand meshes 
of discouraging events that were often toiled about her, that they 
dared not trust her seeming weakness, and become lulled into a 
careless repose. 

As vigilant measures as ever were adopted by Washington for the 
campaign of 1782, but fortunately they were unnecessary, for active 
hostilities soon after ceased. In the southern States some skir- 
mishing took place, particularly in Georgia and South Carolina ; but 
these combats were chiefly partisan, and carried on with intense 
hatred by the whigs and tories. 

After the surrender of Cornwallis, Greene, being reinforced by the 
Pennsylvania line, sent Wayne with a part of the southern army 
into Georgia. General Clarke, the British commander, ordered 
his officers at the outposts to burn all the provisions of the country as 
far as possible, and then retire within the lines at Savannah. The 
State was thus evacuated, and the Republican Governor 
re-established authority.* On the same day, Colonel 
Brown, with a considerable force, marched out of Savannah against 
Wayne ; but the vigilant American, by a skilful manoeuvre, got in 
his rear, attacked him at midnight, and routed his whole party. 
Wayne was afterwards assaulted about five miles from Savannah, 
by a large party of Creek Indians, led on by their chiefs and British 
officers, but he successfully repelled them, and this was the con- 
cluding battle in Georgia." In July, arrangements were 
made for withdrawing the royal troops from that State. 
Some slight skirmishes took place in South Carolina in August, in 
one of which Colonel John Laurens was killed. 

General Washington left Philadelphia about the middle of April, 
and established the head-quarters of his army at Newburgh, in the 
State of New York, about eight miles north of West Point. On 
his arrival in camp he was informed of the murder, by hanging', of 
Captain Huddy, an American officer, which outrage he determined 
to avenge by a retaliatory step, and for this purpose selected a British 
officer by lot, from among his prisoners at Lancaster, in Pennsylva- 
nia. The lot fell upon Captain Asgill (son of Sir Charles Asgill), 
a very young officer ; but after a great deal of delay, prompted by 
the generous humanity of the Commander-in-chief, it was resolved 
to forego the rigorous measure, and young Asgill was set at liberty.* 

* Captain Huddy commanded a small force in New Jersey, and was taken prisoner 
by a party of refugees and carried to New York. He was sent out of the city under 
the charge of Captain Lippencot, at the head of a number of refugees, and upon 
the heights of Middletown they hanged the unfortunate prisoner. Captain Asgill, 
who was selected as the victim for retaliation, was only nineteen vears of age. Sir 



chap. xn.J EVENTS OF 1782. 353 

Proceedings in Parliament. Arrival of Sir Guy Carleton. 

Hostilities having, by tacit consent, ceased in America, let us now 
turn to a view of events in Europe, tending towards an acknowledg- 
ment of the Independence of the United States. 

The combined effects of the Armed Neutrality (at the head of 
which was the Empress Catharine, of Russia), and the defeat of 
Cornwallis, upon the minds of the people of Great Britain, raised an 
universal cry for peace throughout the realm. The resources of the 
country were nearly exhausted ; all Europe was arming against her ; 
America was virtually severed from her, and the people clamored 
for the recognition of the Independence of the United States, and 
the conclusion of peace with the Continental powers. When Par- 
liament re-assembled on the twentieth of January, a phalanx of 
first-rank statesmen appeared with the opposition — Fox, the younger 
Pitt, Burke, Rockingham, Shelburne, and others. The unpopularity 
of ministers was very evident, and on the nineteenth of February, 
this fact was glaringly exhibited by the result of a vote taken upon 
a resolution offered by General Conway, for an address to the King, 
deprecating the continuance of the war in America, &c. It was 
negatived by a majority of only one. On the twenty-seventh, Con- 
way renewed his motion in another shape, and Lord North endea- 
vored to stay its adoption by an adjournment, but was defeated. 
Conway then moved that the House would consider as enemies to 
their King and country, all who should advise or attempt the 
further prosecution of the war. This was adopted. Lord 
George Germaine, seeing the tendency of affairs, resigned, but Lord 
North clung pertinaciously to his office. On the twentieth of March, 
North resigned, after an administration of over ten years. The 
Marquis of Rockingham again assumed the Premiership, and the 
friends of peace came into power. 

Sir Guy Carleton, who was appointed to succeed Sir Henry Clin- 
ton in command of all the British forces in America, arrived at New 
York early in May, bearing instructions to use all honorable means 
to bring about an accommodation with the United States. In con- 
sequence of these peaceful features of the mission of the new com- 
mander, both parties ceased offensive warfare, and preparations were 
made to conclude terms of Peace. France invited Congress to send 

Henry Clinton, and his successor, Sir Guy Carleton, both disavowed the act of Lip- 
pencot, and Washington, considering the irresponsible character of the miscreant, 
recommended Congress to release Asgill. Its movements were tardy, and in the 
meanwhile, the mother of the young soldier, borne down with family afflictions, 
wrote a pathetic appeal to the King and Queen of France in behalf of her son. By 
their directions the Count de Vergennes wrote in her behalf to Washington, but his 
generosity had anticipated the letter. It, however, doubtless accelerated the move- 
ment of Congress in the matter, and Asgill was soon set at liberty. 



354 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1782 

Preliminary negotiations for Peace. Death of Rockingham, and accession of Shelburne. 

plenipotentiaries for that purpose (the Empress of Russia having 
offered to mediate, and the Emperor of Germany having agreed to 
become a party thereto), and, if possible, bring about a cessation of 
hostilities between France, Spain, Holland, and Great Britain. 
Accordingly, John Jay, Henry Laurens (who had been confined in 
the Tower of London), and Thomas Jefferson, were sent with almost 
unlimited powers, to act in concert with John Adams, then Ambas- 
sador at Paris. Doctor Franklin, who was about leaving for Ame- 
rica, was prevailed upon to remain and assist in the momentous 
labor. 

Vienna was agreed upon as the place of negotiation, but at the 
outset, difficulties arose concerning the basis on which it should be 
conducted. The American Commissioners refused to appear in any 
other character than as representatives of an independent nation, 
while the British Cabinet made the dissolution of the league between 
France and the United States an essential preliminary. This the 
Americans would not concede, and the mediatory scheme was aban- 
doned. 

Rockingham and his cabinet, sincerely desiring peace, opened 
negotiations on a lower basis, although opposed by the King and 
Lord Shelburne, so far as the recognition of the Independence of 
the States was concerned. Mr. Oswald was sent to Paris to ascer- 
tain the views of both parties, and also to negotiate with the Ameri- 
cans ; and the Count de Vergennes expressed his readiness to nego- 
tiate, and his wish that Paris might be made the theatre of action. 
His wish was acceded to, and Mr. Grenville went to Paris, clothed 
with full powers to conclude a treaty ; but difficulties again arose at 
the outset. He intimated to Vergennes that one condition *of the 
acknowledgment of American Independence by Great Britain, would 
be the restoration, by the French, of conquests made during the 
War. This stipulation Vergennes decidedly refused to agree to. 

Rockingham was removed by death on the first of July, and Lord 
Shelburne, a friend of the American cause, but like Chatham, an 
opponent of American Independence, succeeded him in the Premier- 
ship. Still, the negotiations at Paris proceeded ; Mr. Fitzherbert 
having succeeded Mr. Grenville. Oswald continued to conduct the 
American treaty,* but the style of his commission did not suit the 

* Mr. Jones, afterwards the celebrated Sir William Jones, went to Paris for the 
purpose of sounding the Americans on the subject of a continued union with reci- 
procal privileges, between Great Britain and the United States. He sent to Frank- 
lin a curious imaginary fragment of Polybius, respecting the dissensions between 
Athens and her colonies, hoping thereby to draw out from the veteran diplomatist 
his views upon the subject. But no notice was taken of this overture. — See Appen- 
dix, Note ix. 



chap, xii.] EVENTS OF 1782. 355 

Preliminary Treaty. Cessation of hostilities in America, and evacuation of cities 

sturdy Republican, Mr. Jay, as it gave him power to treat with the 
" Colonies or plantations in America." His objections were so 
strong that a new Commission was sent over," in which 

° 'a Sept. M. 

the expression was altered to " United States." 

The question as to Independence being affirmatively settled, there 
were still other points upon which very warm discussion arose : 
First, The western boundary — the Americans demanding its exten- 
sion to the lakes, the British wishing it to be formed by the Ohio 
River : Second, Our requisition of a share in the valuable fisheries 
of Newfoundland and its vicinity : and Third, The compensation to 
loyalists or tories, who had sustained losses during the War, or who 
had been driven out of the country. The American Commissioners 
took a resolute stand on all these points, but in the latter they were not 
only not supported, but opposed, by Vergennes. At this point, Mr 
Oswald, earnestly desirous for peace, proposed to the Americans to 
make a treaty separate from France, but they were bound by the 
instructions given them by Congress, to act strictly in concert with 
the French Cabinet. Through the influence of Mr. Adams, these 
instructions were winked at, and a preliminary treaty of peace was 
concluded with Mr. Oswald,* without the knowledge of Vergennes. 
At this the minister was very indignant, and wrote a letter to Frank- 
lin, accusing him of violating his instructions, and demanding an 
explanation. The Americans justified the act — the French minister 
was satisfied — and Congress never found fault with them. 

On the twentieth of January following,* the preliminary 
treaty was signed between France, Spain,! and Great Britain, and 
on the third of September of the same year, definitive treaties of all 
the powers were signed at one time. Congress ratified the one with 
America on the fourteenth of January, 1784 4 

The reception of the news of the acknowledgment of the Inde- 
pendence of the States and the conclusion of Peace, was the occa- 
sion of great joy throughout the Union, and on the anniversary of 
the battle of Lexington, a cessation of hostilities was nro- 

. . _ " c April 19. 

claimed in the American army. On the third of November 
following,"* the army was disbanded by general orders of d im 

* The River St. Lawrence and the Lakes were fixed as the leading boundaries, 
and extending their frontier thence to the Mississippi. They were allowed to fish 
on the Great Banks of Newfoundland within nine miles of the shores ; and in rela- 
tion to the compensation to loyalists, the American Commissioners agreed that 
Congress should recommend it to the several States. The treaty was signed on the 
thirtieth of November, 1782.— See Pitkin, vol. ii., p. 143-148. 

t In the treaty with Spain, the two Floridas. which had long been held by Great 
Britain, were restored to the former. 

X Appendix, Note X. 



356 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1783. 

Alarming state of the country. A monarchy proposed to Washington. 

Congress, and the three cities occupied by British troops were 
evacuated ; Savannah in July, New York in November, and Charles- 
ton in December, of the same year. 

The conclusion of Peace, and the disbanding of the army, were 
events that reflecting men looked forward to with feelings of mingled 
joy and fear. Although the struggle had been brought to a triumph- 
ant issue by the United States, yet the country was impoverished to 
almost the last degree. Much of the territory had been laid waste ; 
commerce was nearly annihilated ; a heavy burden of debt * was 
weighing like an incubus upon the enterprise of the people ; and 
their circulating medium had become so utterly worthless, that, by a 
decree of Congress, its functions were terminated. Added to this, 
an army of about ten thousand men were large creditors to Congress, 
their pay being greatly in arrears. They had been promised prompt 
liquidation at the close of the war, but so crippled was the govern- 
ment in its pecuniary affairs, that justice to the brave soldiers in this 
particular was out of the question. Many feared an open insurrec- 
tion, and perhaps a civil war, when orders should be given for dis- 
banding the army; for starving men, with arms in their hands, were 
quite likely to help themselves. Events which immediately pre- 
ceded the act of disbanding, threatened to realize these fears. 

It was manifest that Congress was unable to meet the claims of 
the soldiers, and could only recommend their case to their respective 
States. The proposition made in 1780, for the officers to receive 
half-pay for life, met with little favor, as it was of an aristocratic 
tendency ; and although the promise was still standing, they regarded 
it as a matter that would not be accomplished. A spirit of discon- 
tent prevailed in the camp, and in the midst of these gloomy fore- 
bodings, Washington received a letter from an old and highly 
respectable Colonel of the army, expressing distrust of the stability 
of a republican government, proposing the establishment of an Inde- 
pendent Monarchy, and intimating the desire of the army to make the 
Commander-in-chief King. To this letter Washington made quick 
reply, sternly rebuking the writer.! He declared that no event 
during the war had given him so much pain, that he was at a loss to 
conceive what part of his conduct had given encouragement to such 
an address, avowed his earnest desire to have justice done the army, 

* The United States had incurred a debt of forty-two millions of dollars, besides 
twenty-four millions incurred by the individual States. Taxation could not yield 
a tithe of the amount demanded through it, and in 1782, of eight millions of dollars 
called for by the government, only four hundred and twenty thousand were ob- 
tained. 

t His letter is dated " Newburgh, 22d Mav, 1782." 



chap, xii.] EVENTS OF 1783. 357 

The " Nevvburgh Addresses." Washington's prudence and influence. 

and his firm adherence to republican principles, and concluded, ; ' Let 
me conjure you, then, if you have any regard for your country, concern 
for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish those thoughts 
from your mind ; and never communicate, as from yourself or any 
one else, a sentiment of the like nature." How pure and lofty was 
the patriotism of that chief who, at the head of a devoted army, and 
at the pinnacle of general popularity, could thus repel a proffered 
crown, and so indignantly rebuke the man who held it up to view ! 

In the month of December, the officers in the army resolved to 
memorialize Congress upon the subject of their grievances, propos- 
ing that the half-pay for life should be commuted for a specific sum, 
and requesting government to give security for the fulfilment of its 
engagements. Congress had a stormy debate upon the subject, but 
as nine States could not be obtained to vote the commutation propo- 
sition, the whole matter was dropped. This neglect of Congress to 
provide for their wants, produced a violent ferment among the 
officers, and through them the whole army became excited, and 
many minds among them determined upon coercive measures. In 
the midst of this ferment an anonymous notice for a meeting of the 
general and field officers, and a commissioned officer from 

& . , a March 10. 

each company, was circulated in the camp, a accompanied 
with a letter, or address, complaining of their great hardships, and 
asserting that their country, instead of relieving them, " trampled 
upon their rights, disdained their cries, and insulted their distresses."* 
Fortunately, Washington was in the camp, and with his usual 
promptness and wisdom, called a general meeting of all the officers, 
in place of the irregular one.f He condemned the tone of the letter 
as implying a proposal either to desert their country or turn their 
arms against her, and then gave them the strongest pledges that he 
would use his utmost power to induce Congress to grant their 
demands. His address was a feeling one, and appealed directly to 
their patriotism and the nobler sentiments of the heart. When he 
had concluded, he immediately retired from the meeting. The 
deliberations of the officers were exceedingly brief, and resulted in 
the adoption of resolutions, thanking the Commander-in-chief for 
the course he had pursued, and expressing their unabated attachment 
to him, and confidence in the justice and good faith of Congress. 

* It was unknown at the time, who the author of the " Newburgh Addresses" 
was, but it was afterwards ascertained to be Major John Armstrong, then one of 
General Gates's aides, who was subsequently a Minister to the Court of France, 
and Secretary of War during our last contest with Great Britain. 

f This call was followed by another anonymous address, but more subdued in its 
tone than the first. — See Appendix, Note xi. 



358 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1783. 

Disbanding of the army. Washington's Address to the Army. 

They then separated, and with hearts glowing with warmer patriotism, 
resolved still longer to endure privations for their beloved country. 
Congress soon after made arrangements for granting the officers full 
pay for five years instead of half-pay for life, and four months full 
pay for the army, in part payment of arrearages. But as there were 
no funds to make this payment immediately, it required all the 
address of Washington to induce the soldiers to quietly return to 
their homes. 

On the twenty-fourth of March, a letter was received 
from La Fayette, announcing the signing of the preliminary 
treaty ; and Sir Guy Carleton gave official notice of the same 
soon after. In June, Washington wrote a Circular Letter* to the 
Governors of the States, having for its theme the general welfare 
of the country, in which he exhibited great ability, and the most 
truthful features of genuine patriotism. During the summer, many 
of the troops went home on furlough, and the Commander-in-chief 
was employed, with Congress, in arranging a peace establishment, 
and making preparations for the evacuation of New York by the 
British troops. On the eighteenth of October, Congress issued a 
proclamation, discharging the troops from further service, and thus, 
in effect, the Continental army was disbanded. This proclamation 
was soon followed by General Washington's Farewell Address to the 
Army,f ft an address replete with sound wisdom and evidences 
of a virtuous attachment to the men and the cause with 
whom, and for which, he had labored for eight years. 

A small body of troops who had enlisted for a definite period, 
were retained in the service, and assembled at West Point under 
General Knox. Arrangements having been made with Carleton for 
the evacuation and surrender of New York on the twenty-fifth of 
November, these troops proceeded to the city, and as soon as the 
British were embarked, they entered in triumphal procession, with 
Governor Clinton and other civil officers of the State. The cere- 
monies of the day were ended by a public entertainment given by 
Governor Clinton, and throughout the whole transaction, perfect 
order prevailed. 

On the fourth of December, Washington bade a final adieu to his 
companions in arms.| The event took place at New York, and was 

* Appendix, Note xir. t Appendix, Note xm. 

% " At noon," says Marshall, " the principal officers of the army assembled at 
Francis's tavern, soon after which their beloved commander entered the room. His 
emotions were too strong to be concealed. Filling a glass, he turned to them and 
said, ' With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most 
devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy, as your former 



CHAP. XII.] 



EVENTS OF 1782. 



3r : 9 



Washington's resignation of his commission at Annapolis. 



a deeply affecting scene. He then repaired to Annapolis, where Con- 
gress was in session, and on the twenty-third of December resigned 
into their hands the commission he had received from that body more 
than eight years before, appointing him Commander-in-chief of the 
Continental armies. In all the towns and villages through which he 
passed, public and private demonstrations of joy and gratitude met 
him on every side ; and Congress resolved that the resignation of 
his commission should be in a public audience. A large con- 
course of distinguished persons were present, and at the close of a 
brief address,* he stepped forward and handed his commission to 
the President (General Mifflin), who made an affectionate reply. 
He then "hastened with ineffable delight" (to use his own words) 
to his seat at Mount Vernon, resolved there to pass the remainder 
of his days amid the pure and quiet pleasures of his domestic circle, 
enhanced a thousand-fold by the consideration that his dear country 
was free and independent, and had taken a place among the nations 
of the earth. 

ones have been glorious and honorable.' Having drunk, he added, ' I cannot come to 
each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged if each of you will come and take 
me by the hand.' General Knox, being nearest, turned to him. Washington, inca- 
pable of utterance, grasped his hand and embraced him. In the same affectionate 
manner he took leave of each succeeding officer. The tear of manly sensibility was 
in every eye, and not a word was articulated to interrupt the dignified silence, 
and the tenderness of the scene. Leaving the room, he passed through the corps 
of light-infantry, and walked to Whitehall, where a barge waited to convey him tc 
Paulus's Hook. The whole company followed in mute and solemn procession, 
with dejected countenances, testifying feelings of delicious melancholy, which no 
language can describe. Having entered the barge, he turned to the company, and 
waving his hat, bade them a silent adieu. They paid him the same affectionate 
compliment; and, after the barge had left them, returned in the same solemn 
manner to the place where they had assembled." — Marshall's Life of Washington. 
* Washington closed his address with the following words : — " I consider it an 
indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life, by commending 
the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, and those 
who have the superintendence of them, into His holy keeping. Having now 
finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action ; and bid- 
ding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have long 
acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all employment of public 
life." 




Washington's Head-quarters at Newburjjh 



EVENTS FROM 1784 TO 1789. 







George Washington — Alexander Hamilton — Henry Knox. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

UR story of the War of American Independ- 
ence is ended. We have traced it from its 
first inception, during its progress along its 
wondrous pathway of suffering and hope, to 
its goal of Political Freedom for more than 
three millions of people. It now remains for 
us to record, in brief, the events which mark- 
ed the erection of that mighty bulwark of 
defence for the Freedom thus dearly purchased — The Federal 
Constitution. 

At the close of the War, Congress, as the representative of the 

24 




362 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [H 83 - 

Impotency of Congress. Convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. 

people, was burdened with a foreign debt of eight millions of dol 
lars ; and a domestic debt of about thirty millions, due to the army 
and to other American citizens. Congress, according to the terms 
of the Articles of Confederation, possessed no power to liquidate 
debts incurred during the war ; it had the privilege only of recom- 
mending to the several States the payment thereof. This recom- 
mendation was respectfully listened to, but tardily complied with,* 
and Congress had no binding power to compel them to obey its 
mandates. In fact, the people had lost nearly all regard for the 
authority of Congress, and its members urged in vain the State 
Assemblies to agree to a common duty on imports and exports, and 
to such general regulations of trade as might afford a basis for a 
commercial treaty. General indifference prevailed, and in some 
quarters, an indisposition to pay any taxes whatever, began to be 
cherished. Conventions were formed ; law was trampled under 
foot ;t and alarming symptoms of anarchy filled the minds of the 
thoughtful with serious apprehensions for the public safety. 

The leading minds of the Revolution, in view of these increasing 
evils, and the glaring defects of the confederation, were turned to 
the consideration of a plan for a closer union of the States, and for 
giving more efficiency to the general government. Washington 
having contemplated a scheme for uniting the Potomac with the 
Ohio, and thus connect the waters of the East and West, he so far 
influenced the Legislatures of Virginia and Maryland, as to induce 

,, , them to send commissioners to Alexandria, to deliberate 

a March, ' 

1785 - on the subject. They spent some time at Mount Vernon, 
and proposed another commission, to establish a general tariff on 
b Sept imports, and to mature other commercial regulations. This 

1786. convention was accordingly held at Annapolis,' when only 
five States were represented. But able statesmen were there, and, 
feeling sensible of the great importance of having a thorough revisal 
of the Articles of Confederation, they issued an address to all the 
provincial assemblies, urging them to send delegates for the purpose, 
to meet in convention in May, 1787. In February, Congress passed 

* During fourteen months there were paid into the public treasury only $4S2,S90, 
and the foreign interest was defrayed by a fresh loan made in Holland. 

f In New England the theory prevailed to a great extent, that, having all con- 
tributed to defend the national property, they had all an equal right to possession. 
At length the lawless spirit of a certain class manifested itself in open acts of 
rebellion. In Exeter, in New Hampshire, a mob made prisoners of the General 
Assembly of the State. In Massachusetts, an insurrectionary movement was so 
extensive that four thousand militia were called out to quell it. A daring leader, 
named Daniel Shay, with eleven hundred followers, marched to attack the arsenal 
at Worcester, but his forces were soon dispersed, and the rebellion subdued. 



chap, xni.] EVENTS FROM 1784 TO 1789. 363 



Adoption of the Constitution. 



resolutions recommending the measure, and the States promptly 
responded to the call. All were represented except Rhode Island. 
Washington, who was a delegate from Virginia, was unanimously 
chosen President of the convention. They entered earnestly upon 
their duties, but had not proceeded far when they found the Articles 
•of Confederation so exceedingly defective — so entirely inadequate to 
the wants of the country, that they deviated from the original purpose 
for which they convened, and instead of trying to amend the code of 
the old confederation, they went diligently at work to form a new 
constitution. Edmund Randolph, a distinguished Virginia statesman, 
submitted a series of resolutions, embodying the plan of a nn 

J c ' * a May 29. 

new constitution, in which it was proposed to form a general 
government, consisting of a legislature, executive, and judiciary ; and 
a revenue, army, and navy, entirely independent of the States. It 
proposed to give it power to conduct war, peace, and treaties ; have 
the exclusive privilege of coining money, and have the supervision 
of all national transactions. His plan was generally approved, but 
there were many ardent patriots, who were ready to do all things 
for the common weal, that looked upon the proposition as an unjusti- 
fiable infringement of State Rights, and therefore violently opposed it. 
Mr. Patterson, of New Jersey, proposed another plan, enlarging 
the powers of Congress, but leaving its resources and supplies to be 
procured through the medium of the State governments. 
To this proposition, when the vote was taken,j six States • 
gave a negative voice.* A committee was then appointed to reduce 
Mr. Randolph's resolutions into the form of a constitution. The 
committee reported on the sixth of August, and a long debate en- 
sued.! On the eighth of September, a committee was appointed \ 
to " revise the style, and arrange the articles." They reported on 
the twelfth, but amendments and debates continued until the seven- 
teenth of September, when a final vote was taken, and decided in 
the affirmative. The constitution was then signed by thirty-nine of 
the fifty-five members, and immediately submitted to Congress. 
That body recommended the calling of conventions in the various 

* It was during the debate upon this proposition, that Doctor Franklin made 
his remarkable speech on the occasion of his motion for prayers in the Con- 
vention. It is a singular fact that after the adoption of his resolution, far greater 
unanimity prevailed in the Convention. For his speech, see Appendix, Note xiv. 

t A very difficult question arose respecting the slaves in the southern States, to 
whom no vote was allowed. It was justly contended that they formed an essential 
element in the power and resources of those States. It was finally agreed as a 
compromise, that three-fifths of them, under the title of " other persons," should 
be added to the list upon which the number of representative members was to be 
apportioned. 

| Consisting of Messrs. Johnson, Hamilton, G. Morris, Madison, and King. 



364 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. [1789 

Organization of the government. Washington elected President. His progress to New York. 

States, to consider it, and it was stipulated that it should go into 

operation when nine States should signify their approval. In some 

of the States there was much opposition to it, and it was not 

until June, a 1788, that New Hampshire, the ninth State, 

ratified it. It then became the fundamental law of the land.* 

Steps were immediately taken to put the new constitution into 
operation and organize a government under it. The choice of a 
Chief Magistrate was the most important consideration, and all the 
friends of the new constitution looked to Washington as the one whose 
character, popularity, wisdom, and influence, would unite all parties, 
and they felt that upon his judgment they could implicitly rely. On 
the first Wednesday in February, 1789, the first Presidential electors 
were chosen, and on the first Wednesday in March,* they 
met to vote for President. Washington received the unani- 
mous vote of the college, " and, probably without a dissenting voice 
in the whole nation, was chosen the first President of the United 
States." t John Adams was chosen Vice President. 

The intelligence of his election being communicated to him at 
Mount Vernon, Washington soon after proceeded to New 
York/ the seat of the general government. His journey 
thitherward was one continued triumphal march. Addresses and 
congratulations were presented to him in almost every place through 
which he passed. " So great were the honors with which he was 
loaded, that they could scarcely have failed to produce haughtiness 
in the mind of any ordinary man ; but nothing of the kind was ever 
discovered in this extraordinary personage. On all occasions he 
behaved to all men with the affability of one citizen to another. He 
was truly great in deserving the plaudits of his country, but much 
greater in not being elated with them." t 

On approaching Philadelphia, he was received with distinguished 
honors. The bridge across the Schuylkill was highly decorated 
with laurels, and at each end were triumphal arches of evergreen. 
As he passed the bridge, a civic crown was let down from above 
upon his head, and at that moment a loud shout arose from nearly 
twenty thousand people who lined the avenues between the Schuyl- 
kill and Philadelphia. At Trenton he was met by a depu- 

d April 23. . _, r , iii'"..'i i ■ i 

tation from Congress," and the highest honors were paid 
to him by the inhabitants. § At Elizabethtown Point he embarked 

* See Appendix, Note xv. f Sparks, p. 406. 

X Ramsay, vol. ii., p. 345. 

§ On the brow of a hill near Trenton, a triumphal arch was erected under the 
direction of the ladies of the place. The crown of the arch was decorated with 
laurels and flowers, and on it was displayed in large characters, " December, 1776 " 




Inauguration of Washington 1 367 



chap, xiii.] EVENTS FROM 1784 TO 1789. 367 



The Inauguration of Washington. 



m an elegant barge, rowed bv thirteen pilots, and as he passed the 
shipping in the bay, the vessels all hoisted their flags. He was 
received, on landing, by Governor Clinton and other distinguished 
persons, and a great concourse of people, and in the evening, the 
houses of the inhabitants were brilliantly illuminated. 

On the thirtieth of April," he took the oath of office. At «■ V®*- 
nine o'clock in the morning, appropriate religious services 
were held in all the churches in the city, and at twelve, the troops 
paraded before the President's door. The committees of Congress, 
heads of departments, foreign ministers, and civil officers of the 
State, in carriages, following the escort of troops, accompanied him 
to the Federal Hall, upon the balcony in front of which, Chancellor 
Livingston administered to him, in the presence of a vast concourse 
of people, the oath of office, which was in the following words : — 
" I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of 
President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, 
preserve, protect, and defend, the constitution of the United States." 
The Chancellor then proclaimed him President of the United Stales, 
which was answered by a discharge of thirteen guns, and the shouts 
of many thousand people. Washington then went to the Senate 
Chamber, and delivered his Inaugural Speech to both Houses, after 
which he walked to St. Paul's church, where prayers were read 
by the Bishop, and thus concluded the momentous ceremonies of 
the day. This was the crowning act of the War of Independence. 
By this act, the foundation of a mighty State was laid ; the corner- 
stone of the great temple of Universal Freedom was implanted ; the 
divine truth of man's equality was vindicated, and the dawn of a 
glorious era broke upon the world. 

Unlike the revolutions of other times, whose conception and execu- 
tion were frequently simultaneous, and when physical power, aided 
only by the inflammatory harangues, or promised benefits, of dema- 

(the day of the battle of Trenton). On the sweep of the arch beneath was this 
inscription : — " The defender of the mothers will also protect the daughters." 
On one side a row of young girls, dressed in white, with baskets of flowers, were 
arranged — in a second row stood the young ladies, and behind them the married 
ladies. The instant he passed the arch, the young girls began to sing the following 
ode, at the same time strewing flowers in the road : — 

" Welcome, mighty chief, once more, 
Welcome to this grateful shore ; 
Now no mercenary foe 
Aims again the fatal blow — 
Aims at thee the fatal blow. 

Virgins fair, and matrons grave, 
These thy conquering arm did save ; 
Build for thee triumphal bowers, 
Strew, ye fair, his way with flowers — 
Strew your Hero's way with flowers " 



368 



THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 



[1789. 



Revolutionary Writers. 



gogues, supported rebellion, and overturned existing government, 
our Revolution was the result of long years of patiently-endured 
oppression — of violated principles, whose unfettered exercise is an 
essential element of human freedom. For ten years, the Pen was 
the only implement of rebellion used. It supplicated and it warned 
the British King, and it incited to action and guided aright, the patri- 
otism of the oppressed. The Pen had already effected the Revolu- 
tion, when the Sword was called to its aid, as the executor of its 
will ; and during the brilliant achievements of the latter, the leading 
minds of the country, such as Dr. Franklin, John Adams, James 
Otis, Samuel Adams, Richard Bland, John Dickenson, John Jay, 
William Henry Drayton, Daniel Dulaney, Alexander Hamilton, 
David Ramsay, Thomas Jefferson, Arthur J^ee, Jonathan Hyman, 
Dr. Mahew, Governor Livingston, Thomas Paine, Doct. Rush, 
James Wilson, Dr. Warren, Josiah Quincy, James Madison, Charles 
Thompson, William Tennant, and many others, were constantly 
laboring in the diffusion of correct political knowledge among the 
people, and animating them to a proper and dignified defence of 
their liberties. While we weave chaplets of laurel for the heroes 
who led our patriot armies, let us not forget to entwine a wreath of 
the olive and myrtle for the brows of those civic heroes who so early 
and ardently thought and labored, and who perilled so much for their 
country's welfare. 




Great Seal of the United States, and the Seals of ths 
Thirteen Original States. 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE I. PAGE 60. 

STAMP ACT.* 

Whereas, by an act made in the last session of Parliament, several 
duties were granted, continued, and appropriated towards defraying 
the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the British colo- 
nies and plantations in America : and whereas it is first necessary, 
that provision be made for raising a further revenue within your 
majesty's dominions in America, towards defraying the said expenses ; 
we, your majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of 
Great Britain, in parliament assembled, have therefore resolved to 
give and grant unto your majesty the several rights and duties 
hereinafter mentioned ; and do most humbly beseech your majesty 
that it may be enacted, And be it enacted by the king's most excel- 
lent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords 
spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament 
assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after 
the first day of November, one thousand seven hundred and sixty- 
five, there shall be raised, levied, collected, and paid unto his 
majesty, his heirs, and successors, throughout the colonies and plan- 
tations in America, which now are, or hereafter may be, under the 
dominion of his majesty, his heirs and successors : 

1. For every skin of vellum or parchment, or sheet or piece of 
paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any declara- 
tion, plea, replication, rejoinder, demurrer, or other pleading, or anv 
copy thereof, in any court of law within the British colonies and 
plantations in America, a stamp duty of three pence. 

2. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
special bail, and appearance upon such bail in any such court, a 
stamp duty of two shillings. 

3. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which may be engrossed, written, or printed, any 

* Received the royal signature, March 27, 1765. 



370 APPENDIX. 

petition, bill, or answer, claim, plea, replication, rejoinder, demurrer, 
or other pleading, in any court of chancery or equity within the said 
colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of one shilling and six pence. 

4. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
copy of any petition, bill, answer, claim, plea, replication, rejoinder, 
demurrer, or other pleading, in any such court, a stamp duty of 
three pence. 

5. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
monition, libel, answer, allegation, inventory, or renunciation, in 
ecclesiastical matters, in any court of probate, court of the ordinary, 
or other court exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the said 
colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of one shilling. 

6. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet oi 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
copy of any will (other than the probate thereof), monition, libel 
answer, allegation, inventory, or renunciation, in ecclesiastical mat- 
ters, in any such court, a stamp duty oi six pence. 

7. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
donation, presentation, collation or institution, of or to any benefice, 
or any writ or instrument for the like purpose, or any register, entry, 
testimonial, or certificate of any degree taken in any university, 
academy, college, or seminary of learning, within the said colonies 
and plantations, a stamp duty of two pounds. 

8. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
monition, libel, claim, answer, allegation, information, letter of 
request, execution, renunciation, inventory, or other pleading, in any 
admiralty court within the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty 
of one shilling. 

9. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which any copy of any such monition, libel, claim, 
answer, allegation, information, letter of request, execution, renun- 
ciation, inventory, or other pleading, shall be engrossed, written, or 
printed, a stamp duty oi six pence. 

10. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
appeal, writ of error, writ of dower, ad quod damnum, certiorari, 
statute merchant, statute staple, attestation, or certificate, by any 
officer, or exemplification of any record or proceeding, in any court 
whatsoever, within the said colonies and plantations (except appeals, 
writs of error, certiorari, attestations, certificates, and exemplifica- 
tions, for, or relating to the removal of any proceedings from before 
a single justice of the peace), a stamp duty of ten shillings. 

11. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
writ of covenant for levying fines, writ of entry for suffering a com- 
mon recovery, or attachment issuing out of, or returnable into any 



STAMP ACT. 371 

court within the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of five 
shillings. 

12. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
judgment, decree, or sentence, or dismission, or any record of nisi 

prius or postea, in any court within the said colonies and plantations, 
a stamp duty of four shillings. 

13. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
affidavit, common bail, or appearance, interrogatory, deposition, 
rule, order or warrant of any court, or any dedimus potestatem, 
capias subpxzna, summons, compulsory citation, commission, recog- 
nisance, or any other writ, process, or mandate, issuing out of, or 
returnable into, any court, or any office belonging thereto, or any 
other proceeding therein whatsoever, or any copy thereof, or of any 
record not herein before charged, within the said colonies and planta- 
tions (except warrants relating to criminal matters, and proceedings 
thereon, or relating thereto), a stamp duty of one shilling. 

14. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
note or bill of lading, which shall be signed for any kind of goods, 
wares, or merchandise, to be exported from, or any cocket or clear- 
ance granted within the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty 
of four pence. 

15. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, 
letters of mart or commission for private ships of war, within the 
said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of twenty shillings. 

16. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
grant, appointment, or admission of, or to any public beneficial office 
or employment, for the space of one year, or any lesser time, of or 
above twenty pounds per annum sterling money, in salary, fees, and 
perquisites, within the said colonies and plantations (except commis- 
sions and appointments of officers of the army, navy, ordnance, or 
militia, of judges, and of justices of the peace), a stamp duty of ten 
shillings. 

17. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which any grant, of any liberty, privilege, or fran- 
chise, under the seal or sign manual, of any governor, proprietor, or 
public officer, alone, or in conjunction with any other person or per- 
sons, or with any council, or any council and assembly, or any 
exemplification of the same, shall be engrossed, written, or printed, 
within the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of six pounds. 

18. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
license for retailing of spirituous liquors, to be granted to any person 
who shall take out the same, within the said colonies and plantations, 
a stamp duty of twenty shillings. 

19. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 



372 APPENDIX. 

piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
license for retailing of wine, to be granted to any person who shall 
not take out a license for retailing of spirituous liquors, within the 
said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of four pounds. 

20. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
license for retailing of wine, to be granted to any person who shall 
lake out a license for retailing of spirituous liquors, within the said 
colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of three pounds. 

21. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
probate of will, letters of administration, or of guardianship for any 
estate above the value of twenty pounds sterling money, within the 
British colonies and plantations upon the continent of America, the 
islands belonging thereto, and the Bermuda and Bahama islands, a 
stamp duty of Jive shillings. 

22. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
such probate, letters of administration or of guardianship, within all 
other parts of the British dominions in America, a stamp duty of ten 
shillings. 

23. For ever)' skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
bond for securing the payment of any sum of money, not exceeding 
the sum of ten pounds sterling money, within the British colonies 
and plantations upon the continent of America, the islands belonging 
thereto, and the Bermuda and Bahama islands, a stamp duty of 
six pence. 

24. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
bond for securing the payment of any sum of money, above ten 
pounds, and not exceeding twenty pounds sterling money, within 
such colonies, plantations, and islands, a stamp duty of one shilling. 

25. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
bond for securing the payment of any sum of money above twenty 
pounds, and not exceeding forty pounds sterling money, within such 
colonies, plantations, and islands, a stamp duty of one shilling and 
six pence. 

26. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
order or warrant for surveying or setting out any quantity of land, 
not exceeding one hundred acres, issued by any governor, proprietor, 
or any public officer, alone, or in conjunction with any other person 
or persons, or with any council, or any council and assembly, within 
the British colonies and plantations in America, a stamp duty of 
six pence. 

27. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
such order or warrant for surveying or setting out any quantity of 



STAMP ACT. 373 

land above one hundred and not exceeding two hundred acres, within 
the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of one shilling. 

28. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
such order or warrant for surveying or setting out any quantity of 
land above two hundred and not exceeding three hundred and twenty 
acres, and in proportion for every such order or warrant for surveying 
or setting out every other three hundred and twenty acres, within 
the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of one shilling and 
six pence. 

29. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
original grant or any deed, mesne conveyance, or other instrument 
whatsoever, by which any quantity of land, not exceeding one hun- 
dred acres, shall be granted, conveyed, or assigned, within the 
British colonies and plantations upon the continent of America, the 
islands belonging thereto, and the Bermuda and Bahama islands 
(except leases for any term not exceeding the term of twenty-one 
years), a stamp duty of one shilling and six pence. 

30. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
such original grant, or any such deed, mesne conveyance, or other 
instrument whatsoever, by which any quantity of land, above one 
"hundred and not exceeding two hundred acres, shall be granted, con- 
veyed, or assigned, within such colonies, plantations, and islands, a 
stamp duty of two shillings. 

31. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
such original grant, or any such deed, mesne conveyance, or other 
instrument whatsoever, by which any quantity of land, above two 
hundred, and not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres, shall be 
granted, conveyed, or assigned, and in proportion for every such 
grant, deed, mesne conveyance, or other instrument, granting, con- 
veying, or assigning, every other three hundred and twenty acres, 
within such colonies, plantations, and islands, a stamp duty of two 
shillings and six pence. 

32. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
such original grant, or any such deed, mesne conveyance, or other 
instrument whatsoever, by which any quantity of land, not exceeding 
one hundred acres, shall be granted, conveyed, or assigned, within 
all other parts of the British dominions in America, a stamp duty of 
three shillings. 

33. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
such original grant, or any such deed, mesne conveyance, or other 
instrument whatsoever, by which any quantity of land, above one 
hundred and not exceeding two hundred acres, shall be granted, con- 
veyed, or assigned, within the same parts of the said dominions, a 
stamp duty of four shillings. 



374 APPENDIX. 

34. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
such original grant, or any such deed, mesne conveyance, or other 
instrument whatsoever, by which any quantity of land, above two 
hundred and not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres, shall be 
granted, conveyed, or assigned, and in proportion for every such 
grant, deed, mesne conveyance, or other instrument, granting, con- 
veying, or assigning every other three hundred and twenty acres, 
within the same parts of the said dominions, a stamp duty of five 
shillings. 

35. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
grant, appointment, or admission, of or to any beneficial office or 
employment, not herein before charged, above the value of twenty 
pounds per annum sterling money, in salary, fees, and perquisites, 
or any exemplification of the same, within the British colonies and 
plantations upon the continent of America, the islands belonging 
thereto, and the Bermuda and Bahama islands (except commissions 
of officers of the army, navy, ordnance, or militia, and of justices of 
the peace), a stamp duty of four pounds. 

36. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
such grant, appointment, or admission, of or to any such public bene- 
ficial office or employment, or any exemplification of the same,' 
within all other parts of the British dominions in America, a stamp 
duty of six pounds. 

37. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
indenture, lease, conveyance, contract, stipulation, bill of sale, 
charter party, protest, articles of apprenticeship or covenant (except 
for the hire of servants not apprentices, and also except such other 
matters as herein before charged), within the British colonies and 
plantations in America, a stamp duty of two shillings and six pence. 

38. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which any warrant or order for auditing any 
public accounts, beneficial warrant, order, grant, or certificate, under 
any public seal, or under the seal or sign manual of any governor, 
proprietor, or public officer, alone, or in conjunction with any person 
or persons, or with any council, or any council and assembly, not 
herein before charged, or any passport or letpass, surrender of office, 
or policy of assurance, shall be engrossed, written, or printed, within 
the said colonies and plantations (except warrants or orders for the 
service of the army, navy, ordnance, or militia, and grants of offices 
under twenty pounds per annum, in salary, fees, and perquisites) a 
stamp duty of Jive shillings. 

39. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
notarial act, bond, deed, letter of attorney, procuration, mortgage 
release, or other obligatory instrument, not herein before charged, 



STAMP ACT. 375 

within the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of two shillings 
and three pence. 

40. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
register, entry, or enrolment of any grant, deed, or other instrument 
whatsoever, herein before charged, within the said colonies and 
plantations, a stamp duty of three pence. 

41. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any 
register, entry, or enrolment of any grant, deed, or other instrument 
whatsoever, not herein before charged, within the said colonies and 
plantations, a stamp duty of two shillings. 

42. And for and upon every pack of playing cards, and all dice, 
which shall be sold or used within the said colonies and plantations, 
the several stamp duties following (that is to say) ; 

43. For every pack of such cards, one shilling. 

44. And for every pair of such dice, ten shillings. 

45. And for and upon every paper called a pamphlet, and upon 
every newspaper, containing public news, or occurrences, which 
shall be printed, dispersed, and made public, within any of the said 
colonies and plantations, and for and upon such advertisements as are 
hereinafter mentioned, the respective duties following (that is 
to say) ; 

46. For every such pamphlet and paper, contained in a half sheet, 
or any lesser piece of paper, which shall be so printed, a stamp duty 
of one half-penny for every printed copy thereof. 

47. For every such pamphlet and paper (being larger than half a 
sheet, and not exceeding one whole sheet), which shall be printed, a 
stamp duty of one penny for every printed copy thereof. 

48. For every pamphlet and paper, being larger than one whole 
sheet, and not exceeding six sheets in octavo, or in a lesser page, or 
not exceeding twelve sheets in quarto, or twenty sheets in folio, 
which shall be so printed, a duty after the rate of one shilling for 
every sheet of any kind of paper which shall be contained in one 
printed copy thereof. 

49. For every advertisement to be contained in any gazette, 
newspaper, or other paper, or any pamphlet which shall be so 
printed, a duty of two shillings. 

50. For every almanac, or calendar, for any one particular year, 
or for any time less than a year, which shall be written or printed on 
one side only of any one sheet, skin, or piece of paper, parchment, 
or vellum, within the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duly of 
two pence. 

51. For every other almanac or calendar, for any one particular 
year, which shall be written or printed within the said colonies and 
plantations, a stamp duty of four pence. 

52. And for every almanac or calendar, written or printed in the 
said colonies and plantations, to serve for several years, duties to the 
same amount respectively shall be paid for every such year. 

53. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or 



376 APPENDIX. 

piece of paper, on which any instrument, proceeding, or other matter 
or thing aforesaid, shall be engrossed, written, or printed, within the 
said colonies and plantations, in any other than the English language, 
a stamp duty of double the amount of the respective duties before 
charged thereon. 

54. And there shall be also paid, in the said colonies and planta- 
tions, a duty of six pence for every twenty shillings, in any sum not 
exceeding fifty pounds sterling money, which shall be given, paid, 
contracted, or agreed for, with or in relation to any clerk or appren- 
tice, which shall be put or placed to or with any master or mistress, 
to learn any profession, trade, or employment. IJ. And also a duly 
of one shilling for every twenty shillings, in any sum exceeding fifty 
pounds, which shall be given, paid, contracted, or agreed for, with, 
or in relation to, any such clerk or apprentice. 

55. Finally, the produce of all the aforementioned duties shall be 
paid into his majesty's treasury ; and there held in reserve, to be 
used from time to time by the parliament, for the purpose of defray- 
ing the expenses necessary for the defence, protection, and security 
of the said colonies and plantations. 



NOTE II. PAGE 66. 

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.* 

The members of this congress, sincerely devoted, with the warmest 
sentiments of affection and duty to his majesty's person and 
government, inviolably attached to the present happy establishment 
of the Protestant succession, and with minds deeply impressed 
by a sense of the present and impending misfortunes of the British 
colonies on this continent ; having considered as maturely as time 
would permit, the circumstances of said colonies, esteem it our 
indispensable duty to make the following declarations, of our humble 
opinions, respecting the most essential rights and liberties of the 
colonists, and of the grievances under which they labor, by reason 
of several late acts of parliament. 

1st. That his majesty's subjects in these colonies owe the same 
allegiance to the crown of Great Britain, that is owing from his sub- 
jects born within the realm, and all due subordination to that august 
body, the parliament of Great Britain. 

2d. That his majesty's liege subjects in these colonies are entitled 
to all the inherent rights and privileges of his natural born subjects 
within the kingdom of Great Britain. 

3d. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, 
and the undoubted rights of Englishmen, that no taxes should be 
imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally, or 
by their representatives. 

4th. That the people of these colonies are not, and from their 

* Adopted October 19, 1765. 



DECLARATION OF RIGHTS— 1765. 377 

local circumstances, cannot be represented in the house of commons 
in Great Britain. 

5th. That the only representatives of the people of these colonies, 
are persons chosen therein, by themselves : and that no taxes ever 
have been, or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their 
respective legislatures. 

6th. That all supplies to the crown, being free gifts of the people, 
it is unreasonable and inconsistent with the principles and spirit of 
the British constitution, for the people of Great Britain to grant to 
his majesty the property of the colonists. 

7th. That trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of 
every British subject in these colonies. 

8th. That the late act of parliament entitled, an act for granting 
and applying certain stamp duties, and other duties in the British 
colonies and plantations in America, &c, by imposing taxes on the 
inhabitants of these colonies, and the said act, and several other acts, 
by extending the jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty beyond its 
ancient limits, have a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and 
liberties of the colonists. 

9th. That the duties imposed by several late acts of parliament, 
from the peculiar circumstances of these colonies, will be extremely 
burdensome and grievous, and from the scarcity of specie, the pay- 
ment of them absolutely impracticable. 

10th. That as the profits of the trade of these colonies ultimately 
centre in Great Britain, to pay for the manufactures which they are 
obliged to take from thence, they eventually contribute very largely 
to all supplies granted there to the crown. 

11th. That the restrictions imposed by several late acts of parlia- 
ment, on the trade of these colonies, will render them unable to 
purchase the manufactures of Great Britain. 

12th. That the increase, prosperity, and happiness of these colo- 
nies, depend on the full and free enjoyment of their rights and liber- 
ties, and an intercourse, with Great Britain, mutually affectionate 
and advantageous. 

13th. That it is the right of the British subjects in these colonies, 
to petition the king or either house of parliament. 

Lastly. That it is the indispensable duty of these colonies to the 
best of sovereigns, to the mother country, and to themselves, to 
endeavor, by a loyal and dutiful address to his majesty, and humble 
application to both houses of parliament, to procure the repeal of the 
act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, of all clauses of 
any other acts of parliament, whereby the jurisdiction of the ad- 
miralty is extended as aforesaid, and of the other late acts for the 
restriction of the American commerce. 

25 



378 APPENDIX. 

PETITION TO THE KING.* 

To the King's most excellent majesty. 

The petition of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the colonies 
of Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the government of the 
counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex, upon Delaware, and 
province of Maryland, 

Most humbly showeth. 

That the inhabitants of these colonies, unanimously devoted with 
the warmest sentiments of duty and affection to your sacred person 
and government, and inviolably attached to the present happy estab- 
lishment of the Protestant succession in your illustrious house, and 
deeply sensible of your royal attention to their prosperity and happi- 
ness, humbly beg leave to approach the throne, by representing to 
your majesty, that these colonies were originally planted by subjects 
of the British crown, who, animated with the spirit of liberty, 
encouraged by your majesty's royal predecessors, and confiding in 
the public faith for the enjoyment of all the rights and liberties 
essential to freedom, emigrated from their native country to this 
continent, and, by their successful perseverance, in the midst of 
innumerable dangers and difficulties, together with a profusion of 
their blood and treasure, have happily added these vast and extensive 
dominions to the Empire of Great Britain. 

That, for the enjoyment of these rights and liberties, several 
governments were early formed in the said colonies, with full power 
of legislation, agreeably to the principles of the English constitu- 
tion ; — that, under these governments, these liberties, thus vested in 
their ancestors, and transmitted to their posterity, have been exer- 
cised and enjoyed, and by the inestimable blessings thereof, under 
the favor of Almighty God, the inhospitable deserts of America 
have been converted into flourishing countries ; science, humanity, 
and the knowledge of divine truths diffused through remote regions 
of ignorance, infidelity, and barbarism ; the number of British sub- 
jects wonderfully increased, and the wealth and power of Great 
Britain proportionably augmented. 

That, by means of these settlements and the unparalleled success 
of your majesty's arms, a foundation is now laid for rendering the 
British empire the most extensive and powerful of any recorded in 
history ; our connexion with this empire we esteem our greatest 
happiness and security, and humbly conceive it may now be so 
established by your royal wisdom, as to endure to the latest period 
of time ; this, with the most humble submission to your majesty, we 
apprehend will be most effectually accomplished by fixing the pillars 
thereof on liberty and justice, and securing the inherent rights and 

* Adopted October 22, 1765. 



PETITION TO THE KING— 1765. 379 

hberties of your subjects here, upon the principles of the English 
constitution. To this constitution, these two principles are essen- 
tial ; the rights of your faithful subjects freely to grant to your 
majesty such aids as are required for the support of your govern- 
ment over them, and other public exigencies ; and trials by their 
peers. By the one they are secured from unreasonable impositions, 
and by the other from the arbitrary decisions of the executive power. 
The continuation of these liberties to the inhabitants of America, we 
ardently implore, as absolutely necessary to unite the several parts 
of your wide-extended dominions, in that harmony so essential to the 
preservation and happiness of the whole. Protected in these liber 
ties, the emoluments Great Britain receives from us, however great 
at present, are inconsiderable, compared with those she has the 
fairest prospect of acquiring. By this protection, she will for ever 
secure to herself the advantages of conveying to all Europe, the 
merchandize which America furnishes, and for supplying, through 
the same channel, whatsoever is wanted from thence. Here opens 
a boundless source of wealth and naval strength. Yet these immense 
advantages, by the abridgment of those invaluable rights and liber- 
ties, by which our growth has been nourished, are in danger of being 
for ever lost, and our subordinate legislatures in effect rendered use- 
less by the late acts of parliament imposing duties and taxes on these 
colonies, and extending the jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty 
here, beyond its ancient limits ; statutes by which your majesty's 
commons in Britain undertake absolutely to dispose of the property 
of their fellow-subjects in America without their consent, and for the 
enforcing whereof, they are subjected to the determination of a single 
judge, in a court unrestrained by the wise rules of the common law, 
the birthright of Englishmen, and the safeguard of their persons and 
properties. 

The invaluable rights of taxing ourselves and trial by our peers, 
of which we implore your majesty's protection, are not, we most 
humbly conceive, unconstitutional, but confirmed by the Great 
Charter of English liberties. On the first of these rights the 
honorable house of commons found their practice of originating 
money, a right enjoyed by the kingdom of Ireland, by the clergy 
of England, until relinquished by themselves ; a right, in fine, which 
all other your majesty's English subjects, both within and without 
the realm, have hitherto enjoyed. 

With hearts, therefore, impressed with the most indelible charac- 
ters of gratitude to your majesty, and to the memory of the kings of 
your illustrious house, whose reigns have been signally distinguished 
by their auspicious influence on the prosperity of the British domi- 
nions ; and convinced by the most affecting proofs of your majesty's 
paternal love to all your people, however distant, and your unceasing 
and benevolent desires to promote their happiness ; we most humbly 
beseech your majesty that you will be graciously pleased to take into 
your royal consideration the distresses of your faithful subjects on 
this continent, and to lay the same before your majesty's parliament, 



380 APPENDIX. 

and to afford them such relief as, in your royal wisdom, their un- 
happy circumstances shall be judged to require. 
And your petitioners will pray, &c. 



MEMORIALS TO PARLIAMENT.* 

To the right honorable the Lords spiritual and temporal of Great 
Britain in parliament assembled : 

The memorial of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the 
colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the govern- 
ment of the counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex, upon 
Delaware, and province of Maryland, in America, 

Most humbly shoiveth, 

That his majesty's liege subjects in his American colonies, 
though they acknowledge a due subordination to that august body 
the British parliament, are entitled, in the opinion of your memorial- 
ists, to all the inherent rights and liberties of the natives of Great 
Britain, and have, ever since the settlement of the said colonies, 
exercised those rights and liberties, as far as their local circumstan- 
ces would permit. 

That your memorialists humbly conceive one of the most essen- 
tial rights of these colonists, which they have ever till lately unin- 
terruptedly enjoyed, to be trial by jury. 

That your memorialists also humbly conceive another of these 
essential rights, to be the exemption from all taxes, but such as are 
imposed on the people by the several legislatures in these colonies, 
which rights they have also till of late enjoyed. But your memo- 
rialists humbly beg leave to represent to your lordships, that the act 
granting certain stamp duties in the British colonies in America, &c, 
fills his majesty's i\.merican subjects with the deepest concern, as it 
tends to deprive them of the two fundamental and invaluable rights 
and liberties above mentioned ; and that several other late acts of 
parliament, which extend the jurisdiction and power of courts of 
admiralty in the plantations beyond their limits in Great Britain, 
thereby make an unnecessary, unhappy distinction, as to the modes 
of trial between us and our fellow-subjects there, by whom we never 
have been excelled in duty and loyalty to our sovereign. 

That from the natural connexion between Great Britain and 
America, the perpetual continuance of which your memorialists most 
ardently desire, they conceive that nothing can conduce more to the 
interest of both, than the colonists' free enjoyment of their rights 
and liberties, and an affectionate intercourse between Great Britain 
and them. But your memorialists (not waiving their claim to these 

* Adopted October 23, 17G5. 



MEMORIALS TO PARLIAMENT— 1765. 381 

rights, of which, with the most becoming veneration and deference 
to the wisdom and justice of your lordships, they apprehend, they 
cannot reasonably be deprived), humbly represent, that, from the 
peculiar circumstances of these colonies, the duties imposed by the 
aforesaid act, and several other late acts of parliament, are extremely 
grievous and burdensome ; and the payment of the several duties 
will very soon, for want of specie, become absolutely impracticable ; 
and that the restrictions on trade by the said acts, will not only dis- 
tress the colonies, but must be extremely detrimental to the trade 
and true interest of Great Britain. 

Your memorialists, therefore, impressed with a just sense of the 
unfortunate circumstances of the colonies, the impending destructive 
consequences which must necessarily ensue from the execution of 
these acts, and animated with the warmest sentiments of filial affec- 
tion for their mother country, most earnestly and humbly entreat 
your lordships will be pleased to hear their council in support of this 
memorial, and take the premises into your most serious consider- 
ation, and that your lordships will also be thereupon pleased to pur- 
sue such measures for restoring the just rights and liberties of the 
colonies, and preserving them for ever inviolate ; for redressing their 
present, and preventing future grievances, thereby promoting the 
united interests of Great Britain and America, as to your lordships, 
in your great wisdom, shall seem most conducive and effectual to 
that important end. 

And your memorialists will pray, &c. 

To the honorable the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses, of Great 
Britain, in parliament assembled, 

The petition of his majesty's dutiful, loyal subjects, the Freeholders 
and other Inhabitants of the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, 
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, the government of the counties of Newcastle, Kent 
and Sussex, upon Delaware, and province of Maryland, in America. 

Most humbly showeth, 

That the several late acts of parliament, imposing divers duties 
and taxes on the colonies, and laying the trade and commerce under 
very burdensome restrictions ; but above all, the act for granting 
and applying certain stamp duties in America, have filled them with 
the deepest concern and surprise, and they humbly conceive the 
execution of them will be attended with consequences very injurious 
to the commercial interests of Great Britain and her colonies, and 
must terminate in the eventual ruin of the latter. Your petitioners, 
therefore, most ardently implore the attention of the honorable house 
to the united and dutiful representation of their circumstances, and 
to their earnest supplications for relief from their regulations, that 
have already involved this continent in anxiety, confusion, and dis 



362 APPENDIX. 

tress. We most sincerely recognise our allegiance to the crown, and 
acknowledge all due subordination to the parliament of Great Britain, 
and shall always retain the most grateful sense of their assistance 
and approbation ; it is from and under the English constitution we 
derive all our civil and religious rights and liberties ; we glory in 
being subjects of the best of kings, having been born under the most, 
perfect form of government. But it is with the most ineffable and 
humiliating sorrow that we find ourselves of late deprived of the 
right of granting our own property for his majesty's service, to which 
our lives and fortunes are entirely devoted, and to which, on his 
royal requisitions, we have been ready to contribute to the utmost of 
our abilities. 

We have also the misfortune to find that all the penalties and for- 
feitures mentioned in the stamp act, and divers late acls of trade 
extending to the plantations, are, at the election of the informers, 
recoverable in any court of admiralty in America. This, as the 
newly erected court of admiralty has a general jurisdiction over all 
British America, renders his majesty's subjects in these colonies 
liable to be carried, at an immense expense, from one end of the con- 
tinent to the other. It always gives us great pain to see a manifest 
distinction made therein between the subjects of our mother country 
and the colonies, in that the like penalties and forfeitures recoverable 
there only in his majesty's courts of record, are made cognisable 
here by a court of admiralty. By this means we seem to be, in 
effect, unhappily deprived of two privileges essential to freedom, 
and which all Englishmen have ever considered as their best birth- 
rights — that of being free from all taxes but such as they have con- 
sented to in person, or by their representatives, and of trial by their 
peers. 

Your petitioners further show, that the remote situation and other 
circumstances of the colonies, render it impracticable that they 
should be represented but in their respective subordinate legisla- 
tures ; and they humbly conceive that the parliament adhering 
strictly to the principles of the constitution, have never hitherto taxed 
any but those who were therein actually represented ; for this reason, 
we humbly apprehend, they never have taxed Ireland, nor any other 
of the subjects without the realm. But were it ever so clear, that 
the colonies might in law be reasonably represented in the honorable 
house of commons, yet we conceive that very good reasons, from 
inconvenience, from the principles of true policy, and from the spirit 
of the British constitution, may be adduced to show, that it would be 
for the real interest of Great Britain, as well as her colonies, that the 
late regulations should be rescinded, and the several acts of parlia- 
ment imposing duties and taxes on the colonies, and extending the 
jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty here, beyond their ancient 
limits, should be repealed. 

We shall not attempt a minute detail of all the reasons which the 
wisdom of the honorable house may suggest, on this occasion, but 
would humbly submit the following particulars to their consider- 
ation : 



MEMORIALS TO PARLIAMENT— 1774. 383 

That money is already very scarce in these colonies, and is still 
decreasing by the necessary exportation of specie from the continent 
for the discharging of our debts to British merchants ; that an im- 
mensely heavy debt is yet due from the colonists for British manu- 
factures, and that they are still heavily burdened with taxes to 
discharge the arrearages due for aids granted by them in the late 
war ; that the balance of trade will ever be much against the colonies, 
and in favor of Great Britain, whilst we consume her manufactures ; 
the demand of which must ever increase in proportion to the number 
of inhabitants settled here, with the means of purchasing them. 
We, therefore, humbly conceive it to be the interest of Great Britain 
to increase rather than diminish those means, as the profit of all the 
trade of the colonies ultimately centres there to pay for her manufac- 
tures, as we are not allowed to purchase elsewhere, and by the con- 
sumption of which at the advanced prices the British taxes oblige 
the makers and venders to set on them, we eventually contribute 
very largely to the revenues of the crown. 

That, from the nature of American business, the multiplicity of 
suits and papers used in matters of small value, in a country where 
freeholds are so minutely divided, and property so frequently trans- 
ferred, a stamp duty must be ever very burdensome and unequal. 

That it is extremely improbable that the honorable house of 
commons should at all times be thoroughly acquainted with our 
condition, and all facts requisite to a just and equal taxation of the 
colonies. 

It is also humbly submitted whether there be not a material dis- 
tinction, in reason and sound policy, at least, between the necessary 
exercise of parliamentary jurisdiction in general acts, and the com- 
mon law, and the regulations of trade and commerce, through the 
whole empire, and the exercise of that jurisdiction by imposing taxes 
on the colonies. 

That the several subordinate provincial legislatures have been 
moulded into forms as nearly resembling that of the mother country, 
as by his majesty's royal predecessors was thought convenient ; and 
these legislatures seem to have been wisely and graciously estab- 
lished, that the subjects in the colonies might, under the due admi- 
nistration thereof, enjoy the happy fruits of the British government, 
which in their present circumstances they cannot be so fully and 
clearly availed of any other way. 

Under these forms of government we and our ancestors have been 
born or settled, and have had our lives, liberties, and properties, 
protected ; the people here, as everywhere else, retain a great fond- 
ness of their old customs and usages, and we trust that his majesty's 
service, and the interest of the nation, so far from being obstructed, 
have been vastly promoted by the provincial legislatures. 

That we esteem our connexion with and dependence on Great. 
Britain, as one of our greatest blessings, and apprehend the latter 
will be sufficiently secure, when it is considered that the inhabitants 
in the colonies have the most unbounded affection for his majesty's 
person, family, and government, as well as for the mother country, 



384 APPENDIX. 

and that their subordination to the parliament is universally acknow- 
ledged. 

We, therefore, most humbly entreat that the honorable house 
would be pleased to hear our counsel in support of this petition, and 
to take our distressed and deplorable case into their serious consider- 
ation, and that the acts and clauses of acts so grievously restraining 
our trade and commerce, imposing duties and taxes on our property, 
and extending the jurisdiction of the court of admiralty beyond its 
ancient limits, may be repealed ; or that the honorable house would 
otherwise relieve your petitioners, as in your great wisdom and 
goodness shall seem meet. 

And your petitioners shall ever pray, &c. 



NOTE III. — page 123. 

PROPOSITIONS FOR A GENERAL CONGRESS. 

Several States claim the honor of having been first in recommend- 
ing a General Congress of Delegates from the several Colonies. -It 
seems, however, to have been a spontaneous, and almost simultane- 
ous movement in nearly all of the Colonies. On this point, the 
New York Review for 1839, vol. i., p. 337, has the following arti- 
cle : — 

" We have compiled from the American archives (published under the authority 
of Congress) a summary of the earliest dates in which, in every Colony, the subject 
of a General Congress was acted upon by any public assembly in the year 1774 : — 

1774. 

1. By a town-meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, ... - May 17. 

2. By the committee of a town meeting in Philadelphia, ... " 21. 

3. By the committee of a town-meeting in New York, ... " 23. 

4. By the Members of the dissolved House of Burgesses of Virginia, and 

others at Williamsburg, ....... "27. 

;"). By a county-meeting in Baltimore, - - - - - - "31. 

(i. By a town-meeting in Norwich, Connecticut, .... June 6. 

7. By a county-meeting in Newark, New Jersey, .... "11. 

8. By the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and by a town-meeting 

in Faneuil Hall, the same day, ...... "17. 

9. By a county-meeting in Newcastle, Delaware, .... " 29. 

10. By the committee of correspondence in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, July 6. 

11. By a general province Meeting in Charleston, S. C, - - July 6, 7, 8. 

12. By a district-meeting at Wilmington, N. C, .... July 21. 
" A comparison of these dates will at once show how strongly was the instinct 

of union, which, at this period, pervaded the country, and how prompt the Colonies 
were in adopting that principle of combination which served as the direct antago- 
nist to the policy of the British ministry, designed as it was, by confining its obnox- 
ious measures to one Colony, to diminish the probability of a united resistance. In 
looking to these dates, it should also be remembered that the Colonial action, in 
some instances, was independent of that of an earlier date in other Colonies. . In 
Virginia, the recommendation of a Congress was adopted two days before the intel- 
ligence was received of a similar measure, several days earlier, both in Philadelphia 
and in New York." 

As an interesting addendum to the above we add the following state- 
ment of the several places where Qpngress held its session from 



MEMBERS OF THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 385 

1774 until the adoption of the Constitution. It is taken from the 
" American Almanac" for 1834, p. 98 : — 

" At Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, At Philadelphia, July 2, 1778, 

" May 10, 1775, Princeton, June 30, 1783, 

Baltimore,* December 20, 1776, Annapolis, November 26, 1783. 

Philadelphia, March 4, 1777, Trenton, November 1, 1784, 

Lancaster,! September, 27, 1777, New York, January 11, 1785, 

York, J: " 30, " 

where it continued to meet until the adoption of the Constitution From 1781 to 
1788, Congress met annually on the first Monday in November." 



NOTE IV. PAGE 131. 

NAMES OF MEMBERS 

COMPOSING THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. § 

New Hampshire. — John Sullivan, Nathaniel Folsom. 

Massachusetts. — Thomas dishing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, 
Robert Treat Paine. 

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, — Stephen Hopkins, 
Samuel Ward. 

Connecticut. — Eliphalet Dyer, Roger Sherman, Silas Deane. 

New York. — James Duane, Isaac Lord, Henry Wisner, John 
Alsop, John Jay, "William Floyd, Philip Livingston. 

New Jersey. — James Kinsey, Stephen Crane, William Living- 
ston, Richard Smith, John De Hart. 

Pennsylvania. — Joseph Galloway, John Morton, Charles Hum- 
phreys, Thomas Mifflin, Samuel Rhodes, Edward Biddle, George 
Ross, John Dickenson. 

Delaware. — Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, George Read. 

Maryland. — Robert Goldsborough, Samuel Chase, Thomas John- 
son, Mathew Tilghman, William Paca. 

Virginia. — Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George Wash- 
ington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund 
Pendleton. 

North Carolina. — William Hooper, Joseph Hughes, Richard 
Caswell. 

South Carolina. — Henry Middleton, John Rutledge, Thomas 
Lynch, Christopher Gadsden, Edward Rutledge. 

* Congress adjourned to Baltimore, in expectation of an attack upon Philadelphia 
by Cornwallis, who had chased the Americans across New Jersey to the banks of 
the Delaware. 

t Adjourned to Lancaster when Howe marched upon Philadelphia, after the bat- 
tle of Brandywine. 

{ Adjourned to York for greater security, where its sessions were held during 
the winter that the Americans were encamped at Valley Forge. 

§ Assembled in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, September 5, 1774. 



386 APPENDIX. 

NOTE V. PAGE 134. 

ADDRESSES, &c, 

OF THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, 1774, 

TO THE PEOPLE OF GREAT BRITAIN.* 

When a nation, led to greatness by the hand of liberty, and pos- 
sessed of all the glory that heroism, munificence, and humanity can 
bestow, descends to the ungrateful task of forging chains for her 
friends and children, and instead of giving support to freedom, turns 
advocate for slavery and oppression, there is reason to suspect 
she has ceased to be virtuous, or been extremely negligent in the 
appointment of her rulers. 

In almost every age, in repeated conflicts, in long and bloody 
wars, as well civil as foreign, against many and powerful nations, 
against the open assaults of enemies, and the more dangerous treache- 
ry of friends, have the inhabitants of your Island, your great and 
glorious ancestors, maintained their independence, and transmitted 
the rights of men, and the blessings of liberty, to you, their posterity. 

Be not surprised, therefore, that we, who are descended from the 
same common ancestors ; that we, whose forefathers participated in 
all the rights, the liberties, and the Constitutions you so justly boast 
of, and who have carefully conveyed the same fair inheritance to us, 
guaranteed by the plighted faith of government and the most solemn 
compacts with British sovereigns, should refuse to surrender them to 
men, who found their claims on no principles of reason, and who 
prosecute them with a design, that by having our lives and property 
in their power, they may, with the greatest facility, enslave you. 
The cause of America is now the object of universal attention : it 
has at length become very serious. This unhappy country has not 
only been oppressed, but abused and misrepresented ; and the duty 
we owe ourselves and posterity, to your interest, and the general 
welfare of the British empire, leads us to address you on this very 
important subject. Know then, That we consider ourselves, and do 
insist, that we are and ought to be, as free as our fellow subjects in 
Britain, and that no power on earth has a right to take our property 
from us, without our consent. That we claim all the benefits 
secured to its subjects by the English constitution, and particularly 
that inestimable one of trial by jury. That we hold it essential to 
English liberty, that no man be condemned unheard, or punished for 
supposed offences, without having an opportunity of making his 
defence. That we think the legislature of Great Britain is not 
authorized, by the constitution, to establish a religion, fraught with 
sanguinary and impious tenets, or to erect an arbitrary form of 
government, in any quarter of the globe. These rights we, as well 

* Adopted October 21, 1774. — Journals of Congress, vol. i., p. 36. 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE FIRST CONGRESS— 1774. 387 

us you, deem sacred ; and yet, sacred as they are, they have, with 
many others, been repeatedly and flagrantly violated. 

Are not the proprietors of the soil of Great Britain, lords of their 
own property ? can it be taken from them without their consent ? 
will they yield it to the arbitrary disposal of any man, or number of 
men whatever ? You know they will not. Why then are the 
proprietors of the soil in America less lords of their property than 
you are of yours ? or why should they submit it to the disposal of 
your parliament, or of any other parliament, or council in the world, 
not of their election ? Can the intervention of the sea that divides 
us, cause disparity in rights, or can any reason be given why 
English subjects who live three thousand miles from the royal 
palace, should enjoy less liberty than those who are three hundred 
miles distant from it ? 

Reason looks with indignation on such distinctions, and freemen 
can never perceive their propriety. And yet, however chimerical 
and unjust such discriminations are, the parliament assert they have 
a right to bind us, in all cases, without exception, whether we con- 
sent or not ; that they may take and use our property when and in 
what manner they please ; that we are pensioners on their bounty, for 
all that we possess, and can hold it no longer than they vouchsafe to 
permit. Such declarations we consider as heresies in English poli- 
tics ; and which can no more operate to deprive us of our property, 
than the interdicts of the pope can divest kings of sceptres, which 
the laws of the land and the voice of the people have placed in their 
hands. 

At the conclusion of the lute war — a war rendered glorious by the 
abilities and integrity of a minister, to whose efforts the British 
empire owes its safety and its fame ; at the conclusion of this war, 
which was succeeded by an inglorious peace, formed under the 
auspices of a minister of principles and of a family unfriendly to 
the Protestant cause, and inimical to liberty : we say, at this period, 
and under the influence of that man, a plan for enslaving your fellow 
subjects in America was concerted, and has ever since been pertina- 
ciously carrying into execution. 

Prior to this era you were content with drawing from us the 
wealth produced by our commerce. You constrained our trade in 
every way that would conduce to your emoluments. You exercised 
unbounded sovereignty over the sea. You named the ports and 
nations to which alone our merchandise should be carried, and with 
whom alone we should trade : and though some of these restrictions 
were grievous, we nevertheless did not complain ; we looked up to 
you as to our parent state, to which we were bound by the strongest 
ties, and were happy in being instrumental to your prosperity and 
your grandeur. 

We call upon you yourselves, to witness our loyalty and attach- 
ment to the common interest of the whole empire : did we not, in 
the last war, add all the strength of this vast continent to the force 
which repelled our common enemy ? did we not leave our native 
shores, and meet disease and death, to promote the success of British 



388 APPENDIX. 

arms in foreign climates ? did you not thank us for our zeal, and even 
reimburse us large sums of money, which you confessed we had 
advanced beyond our proportion and far beyond our abilities ? You 
did. 

To what causes, then, are we to attribute the sudden change of 
treatment, and that system of slavery which was prepared for us at 
the restoration of peace ? 

Before we had recovered from the distresses which ever attend 
war, an attempt was made to drain this country of all its money, by 
the oppressive stamp act. Paint, glass, and other commodities, 
which you would not permit us to purchase of other nations, were 
taxed ; nay, although no wine is made in any country subject to the 
British state, you prohibited our procuring it of foreigners without 
paying a tax, imposed by your parliament, on all we imported. 
These and many other impositions were laid upon us most unjustly 
and unconstitutionally for the express purpose of raising a revenue. 
In order to silence complaint it was, indeed, provided, that this 
revenue should be expended in America, for its protection and 
defence. These exactions, however, can receive no justification 
from a pretended necessity of protecting and defending us ; they are 
lavishly squandered on court favorites and ministerial dependants, 
generally avowed enemies to America, and employing themselves by 
partial representations to traduce and embroil the colonies. For the 
necessary support of government here we ever were and ever shall 
be ready to provide. And whenever the exigencies of the state may 
require it, we shall, as we have heretofore done, cheerfully con- 
tribute our full proportion of men and money. To enforce this 
unconstitutional and unjust scheme of taxation, every fence that the 
wisdom of our British ancestors had carefully erected against arbi- 
trary power, has been violently thrown down in America, and the 
inestimable right of trial by jury taken away in cases that touch both 
life and property. It was ordained, that whenever offences should 
be committed in the colonies against particular acts, imposing various 
duties and restrictions upon trade, the prosecutor might bring his 
action for penalties in the courts of admiralty ; by which means the 
subject lost the advantage of being tried by an honest uninfluenced 
jury of the vicinage, and was subjected to the sad necessity of being 
judged by a single man, a creature of the crown, and according 
to the course of a law, which exempted the prosecutor of the trouble 
of proving his accusation, and obliges the defender either to evince 
his innocence, or suffer. To give this new judiciary the greater 
importance, and as if with design to protect false accusers, it is 
further provided, that the judge's certificate of there having been 
probable causes of seizure and prosecution, shall protect the prose- 
cutors from actions at common law for recovery of damages. 

By the course of our laws, offences committed in such of the 
British dominions, in which courts are established and justice duly 
and regularly administered, shall be there tried by a jury of the 
vicinage. There the offenders and the witnesses are known, and the 



ADDRESSES, &c., OF THE FIRST CONGRESS— 1774. 389 

degree of credibility, to be given to their testimony can be ascer- 
tained. 

In all these colonies, justice is regularly and impartially adminis- 
tered, and yet, by the construction of some, and the direction of 
other acts of parliament, offenders are to be taken by force, together 
with all such persons as may be pointed out as witnesses, and car- 
ried to England, there to be tried in a distant land, by a jury of 
strangers, and subject to all the disadvantages that result from want 
of friends, want of witnesses, and want of money. 

When the design of raising a revenue, from the duties imposed on 
the importation of tea in America, had in a great measure been ren- 
dered abortive, by our ceasing to import that commodity, a scheme 
was concerted by the ministry with the East India company, and an 
act passed, enabling and encouraging them to transport and vend 
it in the colonies. Aware of the danger of giving success to this 
insidious manoeuvre, and of permitting a precedent of taxation thus 
to be established among us, various methods were adopted to elude 
the stroke. The people of Boston, then ruled by a governor whom, 
as well as his predecessor, Sir Francis Bernard, all America considers 
as her enemy, were exceedingly embarrassed. The ships which had 
arrived with the tea were, by his management, prevented from re- 
turning. The duties would have been paid, the cargoes landed and 
exposed to sale ; a governor's influence would have procured and pro- 
tected many purchasers. While the town was suspended by deli- 
berations on this important subject, the tea was destroyed. Even 
supposing a trespass was thereby committed, and the proprietors of the 
tea entitled to damages, the courts of law were open, and judges, 
appointed by the crown, presided in them. The East India com- 
pany, however, did not think proper to commence any suits, nor did 
they even demand satisfaction, either from individuals or from the 
community in general. The ministry, it seems, officially made the 
case their own, and the great council of the nation descended to 
intermeddle with a dispute about private property. Divers papers, 
letters, and other unauthenticated ex-parte evidence were laid before 
them ; neither the persons who destroyed the tea nor the people of 
Boston, were called upon to answer the complaint. The ministry, 
incensed by being disappointed in a favorite scheme, were deter- 
mined to recur from the little arts of finesse, to open force and 
unmanly violence. The port of Boston was blocked up by a fleet, 
and an army placed in the town. Their trade was to be suspended, 
and thousands reduced to the necessity of gaining subsistence from 
charity, till they should submit to pass under the yoke, and consent 
to become slaves, by confessing the omnipotence of parliament, and 
acquiescing in whatever disposition they might think proper to make 
of their lives and property. 

Let justice and humanity cease to be the boast of your nation ! 
consult your history, examine your records of former transactions ; 
nay, turn to the annals of the many arbitrary states and kingdoms 
that surround you, and show us a single instance of men being con- 
demned to suffer for imputed crimes, unheard, unquestioned, and 



390 APPENDIX. 

without even the specious formality of a trial ; and that, too, by laws 
made expressly for the purpose, and which had no existence at the 
time of the fact committed. Jf it be difficult to reconcile these pro- 
ceedings to the genius and temper of your laws and constitution, the 
task will become more arduous when we call upon our ministerial 
enemies to justify, not only condemning men untried and by hearsay, 
but involving the innocent in one common punishment with the guilty, 
and for the acts of thirty or forty, to bring poverty, distress, and 
calamity, on thirty thousand souls, and these not your enemies, but 
your friends, brethren, and fellow subjects. 

It would be some consolation to us, if the catalogue of American 
oppressions ended here. It gives us pain to be reduced to the neces- 
sity of reminding you, that under the confidence reposed in the faith 
of government, pledged in a royal charter from the British sovereign, 
the forefathers of the present inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay, left 
their former habitations, and established that great, flourishing, and 
loyal colony. Without incurring or being charged with a forfeiture 
of their right, without being heard, without being tried, and without 
justice, by an act of parliament this charter is destroyed, then- 
liberties violated, their constitution and form of government changed ; 
and all this upon no better pretence than because in one of their 
towns a trespass was committed upon some merchandise, said to 
belong to one of the companies, and because the ministry were of 
opinion, that such high political regulations were necessary to due 
subordination and obedience to these mandates. 

Nor are these the only capital grievances under which we labor : 
we might tell of dissolute, weak, and wicked governors having been 
set over us ; of legislatures being suspended for asserting the rights 
of British subjects ; of needy and ignorant dependants on great men 
advanced to the seats of justice, and to other places of trust and 
importance ; of hard restrictions on commerce, and a great variety 
of lesser evils, the recollection of which is almost lost under the 
pressure and weight of greater and more poignant calamities. 

Now mark the progression of the ministerial plan for enslaving 
us. 

Well aware that such hardy attempts to take our property from us, 
to deprive us of that valuable right of trial by jury, to seize our per- 
sons and carry us for trial to Great Britain, to blockade our ports, to 
destroy our charters, and change our form of government, would 
occasion, and had already occasioned, great discontent in the colo- 
nies, which would produce opposition to these measures, an act was 
passed to protect, indemnify, and screen from punishment, such as 
might be guilty even of murder, in endeavoring to carry their oppres- 
sive edicts into execution ; and by another act the dominion of 
Canada is to be so extended, modelled, and governed, as that by 
being disunited from us, detached from our interests, by civil as well 
as religious prejudices, that by their numbers daily swelling with 
Catholic emigrants from Europe, and by their devotion to adminis- 
tration, so friendly to their religion, they might become formidable to 
us, and on occasion, be fit instruments in the hands of power to 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE FIRST CONGRESS— 1774. 39 1 

reduce the ancient, fre« Protestant colonies to the same state of 
slavery with themselves. 

This was evidently the object of the act ; and in this view, being 
extremely dangerous to our liberty and quiet, we cannot forbear com- 
plaining of it, as hostile to British America. Superadded to these 
considerations, we cannot help deploring the unhappy condition to 
which it has reduced the many English settlers, who, encouraged 
by the royal proclamation, promising the enjoyment of all their 
rights, have purchased estates in that country. They are now the 
subjects of an arbitrary government, deprived of trial by jury, and 
when imprisoned, cannot claim the benefit of the habeas corpus act, 
that great bulwark and palladium of English liberty ; nor can we 
suppress our astonishment, that a British parliament should ever con- 
sent to establish in that country a religion that has deluged your 
island in blood, and dispersed impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder, 
and rebellion, through every part of the world. 

This being a true state of facts, let us beseech you to consider to 
what end they lead. 

Admit the ministry, by the powers of Britain, and the aid of our 
Roman Catholic neighbors, should be able to carry the point of tax- 
ation, and reduce us to a state of perfect humiliation and slavery. 
Such an enterprise would doubtless make some addition to your 
national debt, which already presses down your liberty, and fills you 
with pensioners and placemen. We presume, also, that your com- 
merce will be somewhat diminished. However, suppose you should 
prove victorious, in what condition will you then be ? What advan- 
tages or what laurels will you reap from such a conquest ? 

May not a ministry with the same armies enslave you ? — it may be 
said, you will cease to pay them ; but remember the taxes from 
America, the wealth, and we may add the men, and particularly the 
Roman Catholics of this vast continent, will then be in the power of 
your enemies ; nor will you have any reason to expect, that after 
making slaves of us, many among us should refuse to assist in 
reducing you to the same abject state. 

Do not treat this as chimerical. Know, that in less than half a 
century, the quit rents reserved for the crown, from the numberless 
grants of this vast continent, will pour large streams of wealth into 
the royal coffers ; and if to this be added the power of taxing America 
at pleasure, the crown will be rendered independent of you for sup- 
plies, and will possess more treasure than may be necessary to 
purchase the remains of liberty in your island. In a word, take 
care that you do not fall into the pit that is preparing for us. 

We believe there is yet much virtue,- much justice, and much 
public spirit in the English nation. To that justice we now appeal. 
You have been told that we are seditious, impatient of government, 
and desirous of independency. Be assured that these are not facts, 
but calumnies. Permit us to be as free as yourselves, and we shall 
ever esteem a union with you to be our greatest glory and our great 
est happiness ; we shall ever be ready to contribute all in our power 
to the welfare of the empire ; we shall consider your enemies as our 



392 APPENDIX. 

enemies, and your interest as our own. But, if you are determined 
that your ministers shall wantonly sport with the rights of mankind — 
if neither the voice of justice, the dictates of the law, the principles 
of the constitution, nor the suggestions of humanity, can restrain your 
hands from shedding human blood in such an impious cause, we 
must tell you, that we will never submit to be hewers of wood or 
drawers of water, for any ministry or nation in the world. 

Place us in the same situation that we were at the close of the 
last war, and our former harmony will be restored. 

But, lest the same supineness, and the same inattention to our 
common interest, which you have for several years shown, should 
continue, we think it prudent to anticipate the consequences. 

By the destruction of the trade of Boston, the ministry have 
endeavored to induce submission to their measures. The like fate 
may befall us all. We will endeavor, therefore, to live without 
trade, and recur, for subsistence, to the fertility and bounty of our 
native soil, which will afford us all the necessaries, and some of the 
conveniences, of life. We have suspended our importation from 
Great Britain and Ireland ; and, in less than a year's time, unless 
our grievances should be redressed, shall discontinue our exports to 
those kingdoms and to the West Indies. 

It is with the utmost regret, however, that we find ourselves com- 
pelled, by the overruling principles of self-preservation, to adopt 
measures detrimental in their consequences to numbers of our 
fellow subjects in Great Britain and Ireland. But we hope that the 
magnanimity and justice of the British nation will furnish a parlia- 
ment of such wisdom, independence, and public spirit, as may save 
the violated rights of the whole empire from the devices of wicked 
ministers and evil counsellors, whether in or out of office ; and 
thereby restore that harmony, friendship, and fraternal affection, 
between all the inhabitants of his majesty's kingdoms and territories, 
so ardently wished for by every true and honest American. 

The congress then resumed the consideration of the memorial to 
the inhabitants of the British colonies, and the same, being debated 
by paragraphs and amended, was approved, and is as -follows : — 



TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEVERAL ANGLO-AMERICAN 
COLONIES.* 

We, the delegates appointed, by the good people of these colonies, 
to meet at Philadelphia, in September last, for the purposes men- 
tioned by our respective constituents, have, in pursuance of the trust 
reposed in us, assembled, and taken into our most serious considera- 
tion, the important matters recommended to the congress. Our 
resolutions thereupon will be herewith communicated to you. But, 
as the situation of public affairs grows daily more and more alarm ■ 
ing ; and as it may be more satisfactory to you to be informed by 

* Adopted October 21, 1774. — Journal of Congress, Vol. 1, p. 43. 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE FIRST CONGRESS— 1774. 393 

us in a collective body, than in any other manner, of those senti- 
ments that have been approved upon a full and free discussion, bv 
the representatives of so great a part of America, we esteem ourselves 
obliged to add this address to these resolutions. 

In every case of opposition by a people to their rulers, or of one 
state to another, duty to Almighty God, the creator of all, requires 
that a true and impartial judgment be formed of the measures lead- 
ing to such opposition ; and of the causes by which it has been 
provoked, or can in any degree be justified, that neither affection on 
one hand, nor resentment on the other, being permitted to give a 
wrong bias to reason, it may be enabled to take a dispassionate view 
of all circumstances, and to settle the public conduct on the solid 
foundations of wisdom and justice. 

From councils thus tempered arise the surest hopes of the divine 
favor, the firmest encouragement of the parties engaged, and the 
strongest recommendation of their cause to the rest of mankind. 

With minds deeply impressed by a sense of these truths, we have 
diligently, deliberately, and calmly inquired into and considered those 
exertions, both of the legislative and executive power of Great 
Britain, which have excited so much uneasiness in America, and 
have with equal fidelity and attention considered the conduct of the 
colonies. Upon the whole, we find ourselves reduced to the dis- 
agreeable alternative of being silent and betraying the innocent, or 
of speaking out and censuring those we wish to revere. In making 
our choice of these distressing difficulties, we prefer the course 
dictated by honesty and a regard for the welfare of our country. 

Soon after the conclusion of the late war there commenced a 
memorable change in the treatment of these colonies. By a statute 
made in the fourth year of the present reign, a time of profound 
peace, alleging " the expediency of new provisions and regulations 
for extending the commerce between Great Britain and his majesty's 
dominions in America, and the necessity of raising a revenue in the 
said dominions, for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, 
and securing the same," the commons of Great Britain undertook to 
give and grant to his majesty many rates and duties to be paid in 
these colonies. To enforce the observance of this act, it prescribes 
a great number of severe penalties and forfeitures ; and in two sec- 
tions makes a remarkable distinction between the subjects in Great 
Britain and those in America. By the one, the penalties and for- 
feitures incurred there are to be recovered in any of the king's courts 
of record at Westminster, or in the court of exchequer in Scotland ; 
and by the other, the penalties and forfeitures incurred here are to be 
recovered in any court of record, or in any court of admiralty or vice- 
admiralty, at the election of the informer or prosecutor. 

The inhabitants of these colonies, confiding in the justice of Great 
Britain, were scarcely allowed sufficient time to receive and consider 
this act, before another, well known by the name of the stamp act, 
and passed in the fifth year of this reign, engrossed their whole atten- 
tion. By this statute the British parliament exercised in the most 
explicit manner a power of taxing us, and extending the jurisdiction 

26 



394 APPENDIX. 

of courts of admiralty and vice-admiralty in the colonies to mat- 
ters arising within the body of a county, and directed the numerous 
penalties and forfeitures thereby inflicted to be recovered in the said 
courts. 

In the same year a tax was imposed upon us by an act establish- 
ing several new fees in the customs. In the next year the stamp act 
was repealed, not because it was founded in an erroneous principle, 
but, as the repealing act recites, because " the continuance thereof 
would be attended with many inconveniences, and might be product- 
ive of consequences greatly detrimental to the commercial interest of 
Great Britain." 

In the same year, and by a subsequent act, it was declared, " that 
his majesty in parliament, of right, had power to bind the people of 
these colonies by statutes in all cases whatsoever." In the same 
year another act was passed for»imposing rates and duties payable in 
these colonies. In this statute the commons, avoiding the terms of 
giving and granting, " humbly besought his majesty that it might be 
enacted, &c." But from a declaration in the preamble, that the 
rates and duties were " in lieu of" several others granted by the 
statute first before mentioned for raising a revenue, and from some 
other expressions, it appears that these duties were intended for 
that purpose. 

In the next year (1767) an act was made " to enable his majesty 
to put the customs and other duties in America under the manage- 
ment of commissioners," &c, and the king thereupon erected the 
present expensive board of commissioners, for the express purpose 
of carrying into execution the several acts relating to the revenue 
and trade in America. 

After the repeal of the stamp act, having again resigned ourselves 
to our ancient unsuspicious affections for the parent state, and 
anxious to avoid any controversy with her, in hopes of a favorable 
alteration in sentiments and measures towards us, we did not press 
our objections against the above mentioned statutes made subsequent 
to that repeal. 

Administration attributing to trifling causes, a conduct that 
really proceeded from generous motives, were encouraged in the 
same year (1767) to make a bolder experiment on the patience of 
America. 

By a statute commonly called the glass, paper, and tea act, made 
fifteen months after the repeal of the stamp act, the commons of 
Great Britain resumed their former language, and again undertook 
to " give and grant rates and duties to be paid in these colonies," 
for the express purpose of " raising a revenue to defray the charges 
of the administration of justice, the support of civil government, 
and defending the king's dominions," on this continent. The penal- 
ties and forfeitures incurred under this statute are to be recovered in 
the same manner with those mentioned in the foregoing acts. 

To this statute, so naturally tending to disturb the tranquillity then 
universal throughout the colonies, parliament in ihe same session 
added another no less extraordinary. 



ADDRESSES, &a, OF THE FIRST CONGRESS— 1774. 395 

Ever since the making the present peace a standing army has 
been kept in these colonies. From respect for the mother country 
the innovation was not only tolerated, but the provincial legislatures 
generally made provision for supplying the troops. 

The assembly of the province of New York having passed an act 
of this kind, but differing in some articles from the directions of the 
act of parliament made in the fifth year of this reign, the house of 
representatives in that colony was prohibited by a statute made in the 
last session mentioned from making any bill, order, resolution, or vote, 
except for adjourning or choosing a speaker, until provision should 
be made by the said assembly for furnishing the troops within that 
province, not only with all such necessaries as were required by the 
statute, which they were charged with disobeying, but also with 
those required by two other subsequent statutes, which were 
declared to be in force until the twenty-fourth day of March, 1769. 

These statutes of the year 1767, revived the apprehensions and 
discontents that had entirely subsided on the repeal of the stamp act ; 
and, amidst the just fears and jealousies thereby occasioned, a statute 
was made in the next year (1768) to establish courts of admiralty 
and vice-admiralty on a new model, expressly for the end of more 
effectually recovering of the penalties and forfeitures inflicted by 
acts of parliament framed for the purpose of raising a revenue in 
America, &c. The immediate tendency of these statutes is to sub- 
vert the right of having a share in legislation by rendering assem- 
blies useless ; the right of property, by taking the money of the 
colonists without their consent ; the right of trial by jury, by sub- 
stituting in their places trials in admiralty and vice-admiralty courts, 
where single judges preside, holding their commissions during 
pleasure, and unduly to influence the courts of common law by 
rendering the judges thereof totally .dependent on the crown for their 
salaries. 

The statutes, not to mention many others exceedingly exception- 
able compared one with another, will be found not only to form a regu- 
lar system in which every part has great force, but also a pertinacious 
adherence to that system for subjugating these colonies, that are not, 
and from local circumstances cannot, be represented in the house of 
commons, to the uncontrollable and unlimited power of parliament, 
in violation of their undoubted rights and liberties, in contempt of 
their humble and repeated supplications. 

This conduct must appear equally astonishing and unjustifiable 
when it is considered how unprovoked it has been by any behavior of 
these colonies. From their first settlement their bitterest enemies 
never fixed on any of them any charge of disloyalty to their sovereign 
or disaffection to their mother country. In the wars she has carried 
on they have exerted themselves, whenever required, in giving her 
assistance ; and have rendered her services which she has publicly 
acknowledged to be extremely important. Their fidelity, duty, and 
usefulness during the last war, were frequently and affectionately 
confessed by his late majesty and the present king. 

The reproaches of those who are most unfriendly to the freedom 



396 APPENDIX. 

of America are principally levelled against the province of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, but with what little reason will appear by the following 
declarations of a person, the truth of whose evidence in their favor 
will not be questioned. Governor Bernard thus addresses the two 
houses of assembly in his speech on the 24th of April, 1762, " The 
unanimity and despatch with which you have complied with the 
requisitions of his majesty require my particular acknowledgment, 
and it gives me additional pleasure to observe that you have therein 
acted under no other influence than a due sense of your duty, both 
as members of a general empire and as the body of a particular 
province." 

In another speech, on the 27th of May in the same year, he says, 
" Whatever shall be the event of the war, it must be no small satis- 
faction to us that this province hath contributed its full share to the 
support of it. Everything that hath been required of it hath been 
complied with ; and the execution of the powers committed to me 
for raising the provincial troops hath been as full and complete as the 
grant of them. Never before were regiments so easily levied, so 
well composed, and so early in the field as they have been this year : 
the common people seem to be animated with the spirit of the 
general court, and to vie with them in their readiness to serve the 
king." 

Such was the conduct of the people of the Massachusetts Bay 
during the last war. As to their behavior before that period it ought 
not to have been forgot in Great Britain, that not only on every 
occasion they had constantly and cheerfully complied with the fre- 
quent royal requisitions, but that chiefly by their vigorous efforts 
Nova Scotia was subdued in 1710, and Louisbourg in 1745. 

Foreign quarrels being ended, and the domestic disturbances that 
quickly succeeded on account of the stamp act being quieted by its 
repeal, the assembly of Massachusetts Bay transmitted an humble 
address of thanks to the king and divers noblemen, and soon after 
passed a bill for granting compensation to the sufferers in the disorder 
occasioned by that act. 

These circumstances and the following extracts from Governor 
Bernard's letters, in 1768, to the Earl of Shelburne, secretary of 
state, clearly show with what grateful tenderness they strove to bury 
in oblivion the unhappy occasion of the late discords, and with what 
respectful deference they endeavored to escape other subjects of 
future controversy. " The house (says the governor), from the time 
of opening the session to this day, has shown a disposition to avoid 
all dispute with me ; everything having passed with as much good 
humor as I could desire, except only their continuing to act in 
addressing the king, remonstrating to the secretary of state, and 
employing a separate agent. It is the importance of this innovation, 
without any wilfulness of my own, which induces me to make this 
remonstrance at a time when I have a fair prospect of having in all 
other business nothing but good to say of the proceedings of the 
house." 

" They have acted in all things, even in their remonstrance, 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE FIRST CONGRESS— 1774. 397 

with temper and moderation ; they have avoided some subjects of 
dispute, and have laid a foundation for removing some causes of 
former altercation." 

" I shall make such a prudent and proper use of this letter as I 
hope will perfectly restore the peace and tranquillity of this province, 
for which purpose considerable steps have been made by the house 
of representatives." 

The vindication of the province of Massachusetts Bay contained 
in these letters, will have greater force if it be considered that they 
were written several months after the fresh alarm given to the colo- 
nies by the statutes passed in the preceding year. 

In this place it seems proper to take notice of the insinuation of 
one of those statutes, that the interference of parliament was neces- 
sary to provide for " defraying the charges of the administration of 
justice, the support of civil government, and defending the king's 
dominions in America." 

As to the first two articles of expense, every colony had made 
such provision as by their respective assemblies, the best judges on 
such occasions, was thought expedient and suitable to their several 
circumstances ; respecting the last, it is well known to all men, the 
least acquainted with American affairs, that the colonies were 
established and generally • defended themselves without the least 
assistance from Great Britain ; and that at the time of her taxing 
them by the statutes before mentioned, most of them were laboring 
under very heavy debts contracted in the last war. So far were they 
from sparing their money when their sovereign constitutionally asked 
their aids, that during the course of that war parliament repeatedly 
made them compensations for the expenses of those strenuous efforts 
which, consulting their zeal rather than their strength, they had 
cheerfully incurred. 

Severe as the acts of parliament before mentioned are, yet the 
conduct of administration hath been equally injurious and irritating 
to this devoted country. 

Under pretence of governing them, so many new institutions uni- 
formly rigid and dangerous have been introduced, as could only be 
expected from incensed masters for collecting the tribute or rather 
the plunder of conquered provinces. 

By an order of the king, the authority of the commander-in-chief, 
and under him of the brigadier-generals, in time of peace, is rendered 
supreme in all civil governments in America, and thus an uncon- 
trollable military power is vested in officers not known to the consti- 
tutions of these colonies. 

A large body of troops, and a considerable armament of ships 
of war, have been sent to assist in taking their money without their 
consent. 

Expensive and oppressive offices have been multiplied, and the 
acts of corruption industriously practised to divide and destroy. 

The judges of the admiralty and vice-admiralty courts are em- 
powered to receive their salaries and fees from the effects to be con- 
demned by themselves. 



^98 APPENDIX. 

The commissioners of the customs are empowered to break open 
and enter houses without the authority of any civil magistrate, found- 
ed on legal information. 

Judges of courts of common law have been made entirely depen- 
dent on the crown for their commissions and salaries. A court has 
been established at Rhode Island for the purpose of taking colonists 
to England to be tried. Humble and reasonable petitions from the 
representatives of the people have been frequently treated with 
contempt, and assemblies have been repeatedly and arbitrarily 
dissolved. 

From some few instances it will sufficiently appear on what pre- 
tences of justice those dissolutions have been founded. 

The tranquillity of the colonies having been again disturbed, as 
has been mentioned by the statutes of the year 1767, the Earl of 
Hillsborough, secretary of state, in a letter to governor Bernard, 
dated April 22, 1768, censures the "presumption" of the house of 
representatives for " resolving upon a measure of so inflammatory a 
nature, as that of writing to the other colonies on the subject of their 
intended representations against some late acts of parliament," then 
declares that " his majesty considers this step as evidently tending to 
create unwarrantable combinations, to excite an unjustifiable opposi- 
tion to the constitutional authority of parliament," and afterwards adds, 
" It is the king's pleasure, that as soon as the general court is again 
assembled at the time prescribed by the charter, you should require 
of the house of representatives, in his majesty's name, to rescind 
the resolutions which gave birth to the circular letter from the 
speaker, and to declare their disapprobation of and dissent to that 
rash and hasty proceeding." 

" If the new assembly should refuse to comply with his majesty's 
reasonable expectation, it is the king's pleasure that you should 
immediately dissolve them." 

This letter being laid before the house, and the resolution not 
being rescinded, according to order the assembly was dissolved. A 
letter of a similar nature was sent to other governors to procure 
resolutions approving the conduct of the representatives of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, to be rescinded also ; and the houses of representatives 
in other colonies refusing to comply, assemblies were dissolved. 

These mandates spoke a language to which the ears of English 
subjects had for several generations been strangers. The nature of 
assemblies implies a power and right of deliberation ; but these 
commands proscribing the exercise of judgment on the propriety of 
the requisitions made, left to the assemblies only the election between 
dictated submission and threatened punishment : a punishment, too, 
founded on no other act than such as is deemed innocent even in 
slaves, of agreeing in petitions for redress of grievances that equally 
affect all. 

The hostile and unjustifiable invasion of the town of Boston soon 
followed these events in the same year ; though that town, the pro 
vince in which it is situated and all the colonies, from abhorrence of 
a contest with their parent state, permitted the execution even of 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE FIRST CONGRESS— 1774. 399 

those statutes against which they were so unanimously complaining, 
remonstrating, and supplicating. 

Administration, determined to subdue a spirit of freedom which 
English ministers should have rejoiced to cherish, entered into a 
monopolizing combination with the East India company to send to 
this continent vast quantities of tea, an article on which a duty was 
laid by a statute that in a particular manner attacked the liberties of 
America, and which, therefore, the inhabitants of these colonies had 
resolved not to import. The cargo sent to South Carolina was 
stored and not allowed to be sold. Those sent to Philadelphia and 
New 'York were not permitted to be landed. That sent to Boston 
was destroyed, because Governor Hutchinson would not suffer it to 
be returned. 

On the intelligence of these transactions arriving in Great Britain, 
the public-spirited town last mentioned was singled out for destruc- 
tion, and it was determined the province it belongs to should partake 
of its fate. In the last session of parliament, therefore, were passed 
the acts for shutting up the port of Boston, indemnifying the mur- 
derers of the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay, and changing their 
chartered constitution of government. To enforce these acts, that 
province is again invaded by a fleet and army. 

To mention these outrageous proceedings, is sufficient to explain 
them. For though it is pretended the province of Massachusetts 
Bay has been particularly disrespectful to Great Britain, yet, in truth, 
the behavior of the people in other colonies has been an equal 
" opposition to the power assumed by parliament." No step, how- 
ever, has been taken against any of the rest. This artful conduct 
conceals several designs. It is expected that the province of Massa- 
chusetts Bay will be irritated into some violent action that may dis- 
please the rest of the continent, or that may induce the people of 
Great Britain to approve the meditated vengeance of an imprudent 
and exasperated ministry. If the unexampled pacific temper of that 
province shall disappoint this part of the plan, it is hoped the other 
colonies will be so far intimidated as to desert their brethren suffering 
in a common cause, and that thus disunited all may be subdued. 

To promote these designs another measure has been pursued. Tn 
the session of parliament last mentioned, an act was passed for 
changing the government of Quebec, by which act the Roman Catholic 
religion, instead of being tolerated as stipulated by the treaty of 
peace, is established, and the people there are deprived of a right to 
an assembly, trials by jury, and the English laws in civil cases are 
abolished, and instead thereof, the French laws are established, in 
direct violation of his majesty's promise by his royal proclamation, 
under the faith of which many English subjects settled in that pro- 
vince ; and the limits of that province are extended so as to compre- 
hend those vast regions that lie adjoining to the northerly and westerly 
boundaries of these colonies. 

The authors of this arbitrary arrangement flatter themselves that 
the inhabitants, deprived of liberty and artfully provoked against 
those of another religion, will be proper instruments for assisting in 



400 APPENDIX. 

the oppression of such as differ from them in modes of government 
and faith. 

From the detail of facts herein before recited, as well as from 
authentic intelligence received, it is clear, beyond a doubt, that a 
resolution is formed and now carrying into execution to extinguish 
the freedom of these colonies, by subjecting them to a despotic 
government. 

At this unhappy period we have been authorized and directed to 
meet and consult together, for the welfare of our common country. 
We accepted the important trust with diffidence, but have endeavored 
to discharge it with integrity. Though the state of these colonies 
would certainly justify other measures than we have advised, yet 
weighty reasons determined us to prefer those which we have adopted. 
In the first place, it appeared to us a conduct becoming the character 
these colonies have ever sustained, to perform, even in the midst of 
the unnatural distresses and immediate dangers which surround 
them, every act of loyalty, and, therefore, we were induced once 
more to offer to his majesty the petitions of his faithful and oppressed 
subjects in America. Secondly, regarding, with the tender affection 
which we knew to be so universal among our countrymen, the people 
of the kingdom from which we derive our origin, we could not for- 
bear to regulate our steps by an expectation of receiving full convic- 
tion that the colonists are equally dear to them. Between these 
provinces and that body subsists the social band, which we ardently 
wish may never be dissolved, and which oannot be dissolved, until 
their minds shall become indisputably hostile, or their inattention shall 
permit those who are thus hostile to persist in prosecuting, with the 
powers of the realm, the destructive measures already operating 
against the colonists, and in either case shall reduce the latter to such 
a situation that they shall be compelled to renounce every regard but 
that of self-preservation. Notwithstanding the violence with which 
affairs have been impelled, they have not yet reached that fatal point. 
We do not incline to accelerate their motion, already alarmingly rapid ; 
we have chosen a method of opposition that does not preclude a hearty 
reconciliation with our fellow citizens on the other side of the Atlantic. 
We deeply deplore the urgent necessity that presses us to an imme- 
diate interruption of commerce that may prove injurious to them. We 
trust they will acquit us of any unkind intentions towards them, by 
reflecting that we are driven by the hands of violence into unex- 
perienced and unexpected public convulsions, and that we are con- 
tending for freedom, so often contended for by our ancestors. 

The people of England will soon have an opportunity of declaring 
their sentiments concerning our cause. In their piety, generosity, 
and good sense, we repose high confidence ; and cannot, upon a 
review of past events, be persuaded that they, the defenders of true 
religion, and the asserters of the rights of mankind, will take part 
against their affectionate Protestant brethren in the Colonies, in favor 
of our open and their own secret enemies, whose intrigues, for 
several years past, have been wholly exercised in sapping the foun- 
dations of civil and religious liberty, 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE FIRST CONGRESS— 1774. 401 

Another reason that engaged us to prefer the commercial mode of 
opposition, arose from an assurance that the mode will prove effica- 
cious, if it be persisted in with fidelity and virtue ; and that your 
conduct will be influenced by these laudable principles, cannot 
be questioned. Your own salvation, and that of your posterity, now 
depends upon yourselves. You have already shown that you enter- 
tain a proper sense of the blessings you are striving to retain. 
Against the temporary inconveniencies you may suffer from a stop- 
page of trade, you will weigh in the opposite balance, the endless 
miseries you and your descendants must endure, from an established 
arbitrary power. You will not forget the honor of your country, 
that must, from your behavior, take its title in the estimation of 
the world, to glory, or to shame ; and you will, with the deepest 
attention, reflect, that if the peaceable mode of opposition recom- 
mended by us, be broken and rendered ineffectual, as your cruel 
and haughty ministerial enemies, from a contemptuous opinion of 
your firmness, insolently predict will be the case, you must inevitably 
be reduced to choose either a more dangerous contest or a final, 
ruinous, and infamous submission. 

Motives thus cogent, arising from the emergency of your unhappy 
condition, must excite your utmost diligence and zeal to give all 
possible strength and energy to the pacific measures calculated for 
your relief : but we think ourselves bound, in duty, to observe to 
you, that the schemes agitated against these Colonies, have been so 
conducted as to render it prudent that you should extend your views 
to mournful events, and be, in all respects, prepared for every con- 
tingency. Above all things, we earnestly entreat you, with devotion 
of spirit, penitence of heart, and amendment of life, to humble your- 
selves and implore the favor of Almighty God : and we fervently 
beseech his divine goodness to take you into his gracious protection. 



ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC* 

Friends and Fellow-Subjects : — 

We, the delegates of the Colonies of New Hampshire, Massa- 
chusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecti- 
cut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the* counties of New- 
castle, Kent, and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina, deputed by the inhabitants of the said Colonies, to represent 
them in a general Congress, at Philadelphia, in the province of 
Pennsylvania, to consult together concerning the best methods to 
obtain redress of our afflicting grievances ; having accordingly 
assembled, and taken into our most serious consideration the state 
of public affairs on this continent, have thought proper to address 
your province, as a member therein deeply interested. 

When the fortune of war, after a gallant and glorious resistance, 
had incorporated you with the body of English subjects, we rejoiced 

* Adooted Oct. 2G, 1774. — Journals of Congress, vol. i., p. 35. 



402 APPENDIX. 

in the truly valuable addition, both on our own and your account ; 
expecting, as courage and generosity are naturally united, our brave 
enemies would become our hearty friends, and that the divine Being 
would bless to you the dispensations of his overruling providence, 
by securing to you and your latest posterity, the inestimable advan- 
tages of a free English constitution of government, which it is the 
privilege of all English subjects to enjoy. 

These hopes were confirmed # by the King's proclamation, issued 
in the year 1763, plighting the public faith for your full enjoyment 
of those advantages. 

Little did we imagine that any succeeding ministers would so 
audaciously and cruelly abuse the royal authority, as to withhold 
from you the fruition of the irrevocable rights to which you were 
thus justly entitled. 

But since we have lived to see the unexpected time when minis- 
ters of this flagitious temper, have dared to violate the most sacred 
compacts and obligations, and as you, educated under another form 
of government, have artfully been kept from discovering the un- 
speakable worth of that form you are now undoubtedly entitled to, 
we esteem it our duty, for the weighty reasons hereinafter mention- 
ed, to explain to you some of its most important branches. 

" In every human society," says the celebrated Marquis Beccaria, 
" there is an effort continually tending to confer on one part the 
height of power and happiness, and to reduce the other to the ex- 
treme of weakness and misery. The intent of good laws is to 
oppose this effort, and to diffuse their influence universally and 
equally." 

Rulers stimulated by this pernicious " effort," and subjects ani- 
mated by the just " intent of opposing good laws against it," have 
occasioned that vast variety of events that fill the histories of so 
many nations. All these histories demonstrate the truth of this 
simple position, that to live by the will of one man, or set of men, 
is the production of misery to all men. 

On the solid foundation of this principle, Englishmen reared up 
the fabric of their constitution with such a strength, as for ages to 
defy time, tyranny, treachery, internal and foreign wars : and, as an 
illustrious author* of your nation, hereafter mentioned, observes : — 
" They gave the people of their Colonies, the form of their own 
government, and this government carrying prosperity along with it, 
they have grown great nations in the forests thev were sent to in- 
habit." 

In this form, the first grand right, is that of the people having a 
share in their own government by their representatives chosen by 
themselves, and, in consequence, of being ruled by laws which they 
themselves approve, not by the edicts of men over whom they have 
no control. This is a bulwark surrounding and defending their 
property, so that no portions of it can legally be taken from them but 
with their own full and free consent, when they in their judgment 

* Montesquieu. 



ADDRESSES,"**., OF THE FIRST CONGRESS— 1774. 403 

deem it just and necessary to give them for public services, and pre- 
cisely direct the easiest, cheapest, and most equal methods in which 
they shall be collected. 

The influence of this right extends still further. If money is 
wanted by rulers who have in any manner oppressed the people, they 
may retain it until their grievances are redressed, and thus peaceably 
procure relief without trusting to despised petitions or disturbing the 
public tranquillity. 

The next great right is that of trial by jury. This provides, that 
neither life, liberty, nor property, can be taken from the possessor 
until twelve of his unexceptionable countrymen and peers of his 
vicinage who, from that neighborhood may reasonably be supposed 
to be acquainted with his character and the characters of the wit- 
nesses, upon a fair trial and full inquiry, face to face, in open court, 
before as many of the people as choose to attend, shall pass their 
sentence upon oath against him ; a sentence that cannot injure him 
without injuring their own reputation, and probably their interest 
also ; as the question may turn on points that in some degree concern 
the general welfare, and if it does not, their verdict may form a pre- 
cedent that on a similar trial of their own may militate against 
themselves. 

Another right relates merely to the liberty of the person. If a sub- 
ject is seized and imprisoned, though by order of government, he may 
by virtue of this right immediately obtain a writ termed a habeas 
corpus from a judge, whose sworn duty it is to grant it, and 
thereupon procure any illegal restraint to be quickly inquired into 
and redressed. 

A fourth right, is that of holding lands by the tenure of easy rents, 
and not by rigorous and oppressive services, frequently forcing the 
possessors from their families and their business, to perform what 
ought to be done in all well regulated states by men hired for the 
purpose. 

The last right we shall mention, regards the freedom of the press. 
The importance of this consists, besides the advancement of truth, 
science, morality, and arts in general, in its diffusion of liberal senti- 
ments on the administration of government, its ready communication 
of thoughts between subjects, and its consequential promotion of 
union among them, whereby oppressive officers are shamed or inti- 
midated into more honorable and just modes of conducting affairs. 

These are the invaluable rights that form a considerable part of 
our mild system of government ; that, sending its equitable energy 
through all ranks and classes of men, defends the poor from the 
rich, the weak from the powerful, the industrious from the rapacious, 
the peaceable from the violent, the tenants from the lords, and all 
from their superiors. 

These are the rights without which a people cannot be free and 
happy, and under the protecting and encouraging influence of which 
these colonies have hitherto so amazingly flourished and increased. 
These are the rights a profligate ministry are now striving by force 



404 APPENDIX. 

of arms to ravish from us, and which we are with one mind resolved 
never to resign but with our lives. 

These are the rights you are entitled to, and ought at this moment 
in perfection to exercise. And what is offered to you by the late act 
of parliament in their place ? Liberty of conscience in your reli- 
gion ? No. God gave it to you ; and the temporal powers with 
which you have been and are connected firmly stipulated for your 
enjoyment of it. If laws divine and human could secure it against 
the despotic caprices of wicked men, it was secured before. Are 
the French laws in civil cases restored ? It seems so. But observe 
the cautious kindness of the ministers who pretend to be your bene- 
factors. The words of the statute are, " that those laws shall be 
the rule, until they shall be varied or altered by any ordinances of 
the governor and council." Is the " certainty and lenity of the 
criminal law of England and its benefits and advantages," com- 
mended in the said statute, and said to have been " sensibly felt by 
you," secured to you and your descendants ? No. They too are 
subjected to arbitrary " alterations" by the governor and council ; 
and a power is expressly reserved of appointing " such courts of 
criminal, civil, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, as shall be thought 
proper." Such is the precarious tenure of mere will by which you 
hold your lives and religion. The crown and its ministers are em- 
powered as far as they could be by parliament to establish even the 
inquisition itself among you. Have you an assembly composed of 
worthy men, elected by yourselves, and in whom you can confide, 
to make laws for you, to watch over your welfare, and to direct 
in what quantity and in what manner your money shall be 
taken from you ? No. The power of making laws for you is 
lodged in the governor and council, all of them dependent upon 
and removable at the pleasure of a minister. Besides, another 
late statute, made without your consent, has subjected you to the 
impositions of excise, the horror of all free states, thus wresting 
your property from you by the most odious of taxes, and laying 
open to insolent tax-gatherers, houses, the scenes of domestic 
peace and comfort, and called the castles of English subjects in 
the books of their law. And in the very act for altering your govern- 
ment, and intended to flatter you, you are not authorized to 
" assess, levy, or apply any rates and taxes, but for the inferior pur- 
poses of making roads, and erecting and repairing public buildings, or 
for other local conveniences within your respective towns and dis- 
tricts." Why this degrading distinction ? Ought not the property 
honestly acquired by Canadians to be held as sacred as that of 
Englishmen ? Have not Canadians sense enough to attend to any 
other public affairs than gathering stones from one place and piling 
them up in another ? Unhappy people ! who are not only injured, 
but insulted. Nay, more ! With such a superlative contempt of 
your understanding and spirit has an insolent ministry presumed to 
think of you, our respectable fellow subjects, according to the infor- 
mation we have received, as firmly to persuade themselves that your 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE FIRST CONGRESS— 1774. 405 

(gratitude for the injuries and insults they have recently offered to 
you, will engage you to take up arms and render yourselves the 
ridicule and detestation of the world, by becoming tools in their 
hands in taking that freedom from us which they have treacherously 
denied to you ; the unavoidable consequences of which attempt, if 
successful, would be the extinction of all hopes of you or your pos- 
terity being ever restored to freedom : for idiotcy itself cannot believe, 
that when their drudgery is performed they will treat you with less 
cruelty than they have us, who are of the same blood with them- 
selves. 

What would your countryman, the immortal Montesquieu, have 
said to such a plan of« domination as has been framed for you? 
Hear his words, with an intenseness of thought suited to the im- 
portance of the subject — " In a free state, every man who is sup- 
posed a free agent ought to be concerned in his own government : 
therefore, the legislative should reside in the whole body of the 
people or their representatives." " The political liberty of the sub- 
ject is a tranquillity of mind, arising from the opinion each person 
has of his safety. In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the 
government be so constituted as that one man need not be afraid of 
another. When the power of making laws and the power of exe- 
cuting them are united in the same person, or in the same body of 
magistrates, there can be no liberty ; because apprehensions may 
arise lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws to 
execute them in a tyrannical manner." 

" The power of judging should be exercised by persons taken from 
the body of the people, at certain times of the year, and pursuant to 
a form and manner prescribed by law. There is no liberty, if the 
power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive 
powers." 

" Military men belong to a profession which may be useful, but is 
often dangerous." " The enjoyment of liberty, and even its support 
and preservation, consists in every man's being allowed to speak his 
thoughts, and lay open his sentiments." 

Apply these decisive maxims, sanctified by the authority of a name 
which all Europe reveres, to your own state. You have a Governor, 
it may be urged, vested with the executive powers, or the powers 
of administration : In him and in your Council is lodged the power 
of making laws. You have judges, who are to decide every cause 
affecting your lives, liberty, or property. Here is, indeed, an appear- 
ance of the several powers being separated and distributed into 
different hands, for checks upon one another ; the only effectual 
mode ever invented by the wit of men, to promote their freedom and 
prosperity. But scorning to be illuded by a tinselled outside, and 
exerting the natural sagacity of Frenchmen, examine the specious 
device, and you will find it, to use an expression of holy writ, "a 
whited sepulchre," for burying your lives, liberty, and property. 

Your judges and your Legislative Council, as it is called, are 
dependent on your Governor, and he is dependent on the servant of 
the crown in Great Britain. The legislative, executive, and judging 



40o APPENDIX. 

powers, are all moved by the nods of a minister. Privileges and 
immunities last no longer than his smiles. When he frowns their 
feeble forms dissolve. Such a treacherous ingenuity has been ex- 
erted in drawing up the code lately offered you, that every sentence 
beginning with a benevolent pretension concludes with a destructive 
power ; and the substance of the whole, divested of its smooth words, 
is — that the crown and its ministers shall be as absolute throughout 
your extended province as the despots of Asia or Africa. What can 
protect your property from taxing edicts, and the rapacity of necessi- 
tous and cruel masters ? your persons from lettres-de-cachet, jails, 
dungeons, and oppressive services ? your lives and general liberty 
from arbitrary and unfeeling rulers ? We defy you, casting your 
view upon every side, to discover a single circumstance, promising 
from any quarter the faintest hope of liberty to you, or your pos- 
terity, but from an entire adoption into the union of these Colonies. 

What advice would the truly great man before-mentioned, that 
advocate of freedom and humanity, give you, were he now living, 
and knew that we, your numerous and powerful neighbors, animated 
by a just love of our invaded rights, and united by the indissoluble 
bands of affection and interest, called upon you, by every obligation 
of regard for yourselves and your children, as we now do, to join us 
in our righteous contest, to make common cause with us therein, 
and take a noble chance for emerging from a humiliating subjection 
ander governors, intendants, and military tyrants, into the firm rank 
and condition of English freemen, whose custom it is, derived from 
their ancestors, to make those tremble, who dare to think of making 
them miserable ? 

Would not this be the purport of his address ? " Seize the oppor- 
tunity presented to you by Providence itself. You have been con- 
quered into liberty, if you act as you ought. This work is not of 
man. You are a small people compared to those who, with open 
arms, invite you into a fellowship. A moment's reflection should 
convince you which will be most for your interest and happiness, to 
have all the rest of North America your unalterable friends, or your 
inveterate enemies. The injuries of Boston have roused and asso- 
ciated every Colony from Nova Scotia to Georgia. Your province 
is the only link wanting, to complete the bright and strong chain of 
union. Nature has joined your country to theirs. Do you join 
your political interests. For their own sakes they never will desert 
or betray you. Be assured, that the happiness of a people inevita- 
bly depends on their liberty, and their spirit to assert it. The value 
and extent of the advantages tendered to you are immense. Heaven 
grant you may not discover them to be blessings after they have bid 
you an eternal adieu. 

We are too well acquainted with the liberality of sentiment dis- 
tinguishing your nation, to imagine that difference of religion will 
prejudice you against a hearty amity with us. You know that the 
transcendant nature of freedom elevates those who unite in her cause, 
above all such low-minded infirmities. The Swiss cantons furnish 
a memorable proof of this truth. Their union is composed of Ro- 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE FIRST CONGRESS -1774. 407 

man Catholic and Protestant States, living in the utmost concord 
and peace with one another, and thereby enabled, ever since they 
bravely vindicated their freedom, to defy and defeat every tyrant that 
has invaded them. 

Should there be any among you, as- there generally are in all so 
cieties, who prefer the favors of ministers and their own private 
interests, to the welfare of their country, the temper of such selfish 
persons will render them incredibly active in opposing all public- 
spirited measures from an expectation of being well rewarded for 
their sordid industry by their superiors ; but we doubt not you will 
be upon your guard against such men, and not sacrifice the liberty 
and happiness of the whole Canadian people and their posterity, to 
gratify the avarice and ambition of individuals. 

We do not ask you, by this address, to commence acts of hostility 
against our common sovereign. We only invite you to consult your 
own glory and welfare, and not to suffer yourselves to be inveigled 
or intimidated by infamous ministers, so far as to become the instru- 
ments of their cruelty and despotism, but to unite with us in one 
social compact, formed on the generous principles of equal liberty, 
and cemented by such an exchange of beneficial and endearing 
offices as to render it perpetual. In order to complete this highly- 
desirable union we submit it to your consideration, whether it may 
not be expedient for you to meet together in your several towns and 
districts and elect deputies, who, afterwards meeting in a provincial 
Congress, may choose delegates to represent your province in the 
Continental Congress, to be held at Philadelphia on the tenth day of 
May, 1775. 

In this present Congress, beginning on the fifth of the last month, 
and continued to this day, it has been with universal pleasure, and 
an unanimous vote, resolved, that we should consider the violation 
of your rights, by the act for altering the government of your pro- 
vince, as a violation of our own, and that you should be invited to 
accede to our confederation, which has no other objects than the per- 
fect security of the natural and civil rights of all the constituent 
members, according to their respective circumstances, and the pre 
servation of a lasting and happy connexion with Great Britain on the 
salutary and constitutional principles hereinbefore mentioned. For 
effecting these purposes, we have addressed an humble and loyal 
petition to his Majesty, praying relief of our and your grievances ; 
and have associated to stop all importations from Great Britain and 
Ireland, after the first day of December, and all exportations to those 
kingdoms and the West Indies, after the tenth day of next Septem- 
ber, unless the said grievances are redressed. 

That Almighty God may incline your minds to approve our equi- 
table and necessary measures, to add yourselves to us, to put your 
fate, whenever you suffer injuries which you are determined to 
oppose, not on the small influence of your single province, but on 
the consolidated powers of North America ; and may grant to our 
joint exertions, an event as happy as our cause is just, is the fervent 



408 APPENDIX. 

prayer of us, your sincere and affectionate friends and fellow-sub- 
jects. By order of the Congress, 

Henry Middleton, President. 



PETITION OF CONGRESS TO THE KING.* 
To the King's most excellent Majesty. 

Most Gracious Sovereign : 

We, your majesty's faithful subjects, of the colonies of New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
the counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware, 
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, in behalf 
of ourselves and the inhabitants of these colonies who have deputed 
us to represent them in general congress, by this our humble petition, 
beg leave to lay our grievances before the throne. 

A standing army has been kept in these colonies ever since the 
conclusion of the late war, without the consent of our assemblies ; 
and this army, with a considerable naval armament, has been em- 
ployed to enforce the collection of taxes. 

The authority of the commander-in-chief, and under him the 
brigadier-general, has in time of peace been rendered supreme in all 
the civil governments in America. 

The commander-in-chief of all your majesty's forces in North 
America has in time of peace been appointed governor of a colony. 

The charges of usual officers have been greatly increased, and 
new, expensive, and oppressive offices have been multiplied. 

The judges of admiralty and vice-admiralty courts are empowered 
to receive their salaries and fees from the effects condemned by 
themselves. 

The officers of the customs are empowered to break open and 
enter houses without the authority of any civil magistrate, founded 
on legal information. 

The judges of courts of common law have been made entirely de- 
pendent on one part of the legislature for their salaries, as well as foi 
the duration of their commissions. 

Counsellors, holding their commissions during pleasure, exercise 
legislative authority. 

Humble and reasonable petitions, from the representatives of the 
people, have been fruitless. 

The agents of the people have been discountenanced, and govern 
ors have been instructed to prevent the payment of the salaries. 

Assemblies have been repeatedly and injuriously dissolved. 

Commerce has been burdened with many useless and oppressive 
restrictions. 

* Adopted October 26, 1774. — Journal of Congress, Vol. i , p. 63. 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE FIRST CONGRESS— 1774. 409 

By several acts of parliament made in the fourth, fifth, sixth, 
seventh, and eighth years of your majesty's reign, duties are imposed 
on us for the purpose of raising a revenue ; and the powers of ad- 
miralty and vice-admiralty courts are extended beyond their ancient 
limits, whereby our property is taken from us without our consent, 
the trial by jury in many civil cases is abolished, enormous for- 
feitures are incurred for slight offences, vexatious informers are 
exempted from paying damages to which they are justly liable, and 
oppressive security is required from owners before they are allowed 
to defend their right. 

Both houses of parliament have resolved that colonists may be 
tried in England for offences alleged to have been committed in 
America, by virtue of a statute passed in the thirty-fifth year of 
Henry the Eighth, and in consequence thereof attempts have been 
made to enforce that statute. 

A statute was passed in the twelfth year of your majesty's reign, 
directing that persons charged with committing any offence therein 
described in any place out of the realm, may be indicted and tried 
for the same in any shire or county within the realm, whereby inha- 
bitants of these colonies may, in sundry cases by that statute made 
capital, be deprived of a trial by their peers of the vicinage. 

In the last session of parliament an act was passed for blocking up 
the harbor of Boston ; another, empowering the governor of the Mas- 
sachusetts Bay to send persons indicted for murder in that province to 
another colony, or even to Great Britain, for trial, whereby such 
offenders may escape legal punishment ; a third for altering the 
chartered constitution of government in that province ; and a fourth 
for altering the limits of Quebec, abolishing the English and restoring 
the French laws, whereby great numbers of British Frenchmen are 
subjected to the latter, and establishing an absolute government and 
the Roman Catholic religion throughout those vast regions that 
border on the westerly and northerly boundaries of the free, Pro- 
testant, English settlements ; and a fifth, for the better providing 
suitable quarters for officers and soldiers, in his majesty's service, in 
North America. 

To a sovereign, who glories in the name of Britain, the bare recital 
of these acts must, we presume, justify the loyal subjects who fly to 
the foot of his throne and implore his clemency for protection against 
them. 

From this destructive system of colony administration, adopted 
since the conclusion of the last war, have flowed those distresses, 
dangers, fears, and jealousies, that overwhelm your majesty's dutiful 
colonists with affliction ; and we defy our most subtile and inveterate 
enemies to trace the unhappy differences between Great Britain and 
these colonies from an earlier period, or from other causes, than we 
have assigned. 

Had they proceeded on our part from a restless levity of temper, 
unjust impulses of ambition, or artful suggestions of seditious per- 
sons, we should merit the opprobrious terms frequently bestowed 
upon us by those we revere. But so far from promoting innovations, 

27 



410 APPENDIX. 

we have only opposed them, and can be charged with no offence 
unless it be one to receive injuries, and be sensible of them. 

Had our Creator been pleased to give us existence in a land of 
slavery, the sense of our condition might have been mitigated by 
ignorance and habit. But, thanks be to his adorable goodness, we 
were born the heirs of freedom, and ever enjoyed our right under the 
auspices of your royal ancestors, whose family was seated on the 
throne to rescue and secure a pious and gallant nation from the 
popery and despotism of a superstitious and inexorable tyrant. Your 
majesty, we are confident, justly rejoices that your title to the crown 
is thus founded on the title of your people to liberty ; and, therefore, 
we doubt not but your royal wisdom must approve the sensibility 
that teaches your subjects anxiously to guard the blessing they 
received from divine Providence, and thereby to prove the per- 
formance of that compact which elevated the' illustrious house of 
Brunswick to the imperial dignity it now possesses. 

The apprehension of being degraded into a state of servitude, 
from the pre-eminent rank of English freemen, while our minds retain 
the strongest love of liberty, and clearly foresee the miseries pre- 
paring for us and our posterity, excites emotions in our breasts which 
though w f e cannot describe, we should not wish to conceal. Feeling 
as men, and thinking as subjects in the manner we do, silence would 
be disloyalty. By giving this faithful information, we do all in our 
power to promote the great objects of your royal cares, the tranquil- 
lity of your government and the welfare of your people. 

Duty to your Majesty, and regard for the preservation of ourselves 
and our posterity, the primary obligations of nature and society, 
command us to entreat your royal attention ; and as your Majesty 
enjoys the signal distinction of reigning o?er freemen, we apprehend 
the language of freemen cannot be displeasing. Your royal indigna- 
tion, we hope, will rather fall on those designing and dangerous men, 
who, daringly interposing themselves between your royal person and 
your faithful subjects, and for several years past incessantly employed 
to dissolve the bonds of society, by abusing your majesty's authority, 
misrepresenting 3^our American subjects, and prosecuting the most 
desperate and irritating projects of oppression, have at length com- 
pelled us, by the force of accumulated injuries, too severe to be any 
longer tolerable, to disturb your Majesty's repose by our complaints. 

These sentiments are extorted from hearts that much more wil- 
lingly would bleed in your Majesty's service. Yet so greatly have 
we been misrepresented, that a necessity has been alleged of taking 
away our property from us without our consent, " to defray the 
charge of the administration of justice, the support of civil govern- 
ment, and the defence, protection, and security of the Colonies." 
But we beg leave to assure your Majesty that such provision has 
been, and will be made for defraying the two first articles, as has 
been, and shall be judged, by the Legislatures of the several Colo- 
nies, just and suitable to their respective circumstances : and, for 
the defence, protection, and security of the Colonies, their militia, 
if properly regulated, as they earnestly desire may immediately be 



ADDRESSES, &c., OF THE FIRST CONGRESS— 1774. 411 

done, would be fully sufficient, at least in times of peace ; and, in 
case of war, your faithful Colonists will be ready and willing, as 
they ever have been, when constitutionally required, to demonstrate 
iheir loyalty to your Majesty, by exerting their most strenuous efforts 
in granting supplies and raising forces. Yielding to no British sub- 
jects in affectionate attachment to your Majesty's person, family, 
and government, we too dearly prize the privilege of expressing that, 
attachment by those proofs, that are honorable to the prince who 
receives them, and to the people who give them, ever to resign it to 
any body of men upon earth. 

Had we been permitted to enjoy, in quiet, the inheritance left us 
by our forefathers, we should, at this time, have been peaceably, 
cheerfully, and usefully employed in recommending ourselves, by 
every testimony of devotion, to your Majesty, and of veneration to 
the state from which we derive our origin. But though now exposed 
to unexpected and unnatural scenes of distress by a contention with 
that nation, in whose parental guidance on all important affairs, we 
have hitherto, with filial reverence, constantly trusted, and therefore 
can derive no instruction in our present unhappy and perplexing cir- 
cumstances from any former experience ; yet we doubt not, the 
purity of our intention, and the integrity of our conduct, will justify 
us at that grand tribunal, before which all mankind must submit to 
judgment. 

We ask but for peace, liberty, and safety. We wish not a dimi- 
nution of the prerogative, nor do we solicit the grant of any new 
right in our favor. Your royal authority over us, and our connexion 
with Great Britain, we shall always carefully and zealously endea- 
vor to support and maintain. 

Filled with sentiments of duty to your Majesty, and of affection to 
our parent state, deeply impressed by our education, and strongly 
confirmed by our reason, and anxious to evince the sincerity of these 
dispositions, we present this petition only to obtain redress of griev- 
ances, and relief from fears and jealousies occasioned by the system 
of statutes and regulations adopted since the close of the late war, 
for raising a revenue in America ; extending the powers of courts 
of admiralty and vice-admiralty ; trying persons in Great Britain for 
offences alleged to be committed in America, affecting the province 
of Massachusetts Bay ; and altering the government and extending 
the limits of Quebec, by the abolition of which system, the harmony 
between Great Britain and these Colonies, so necessary to the hap- 
piness of both, and so ardently desired by the latter, and the usual 
intercourses will be immediately restored. In the magnanimity and 
justice of your Majesty and Parliament, we confide for a redress of our 
other grievances, trusting that when the causes of our apprehensions 
are removed, our future conduct will prove us not unworthy of the 
regard we have been accustomed, in our happier days, to enjoy. 
For, appealing to that being who searches, thoroughly, the hearts of 
his creatures, we solemnly profess that our councils have been influ- 
enced by no other motives than a dread of impending destruction. 

Permit us, then, most gracious Sovereign, in the name of all your 



412 APPENDIX. 

faithful people in America, with the utmost humility, to implore you, 
for the honor of Almighty God, whose pure religion our enemies are 
undermining; for your glory, which can be advanced only by ren- 
dering your subjects happy, and keeping them united ; for the inte- 
rests of your family, depending on an adherence to the principles 
that enthroned it ; for the safety and welfare of your kingdoms 
and dominions, threatened with almost unavoidable dangers and 
distresses, that your Majesty, as the loving father of your whole 
people, connected by the same bonds of law, loyalty, faith, and 
blood, though dwelling in various countries, will not suffer the tran- 
scendant relation formed by these ties to be further violated, in 
uncertain expectation of effects, that, if attained, never can compen- 
sate for the calamities through which they must be gained. 

We, therefore, most earnestly beseech your Majesty, that your 
royal authority and interposition may be used for our relief, and that 
a gracious answer may be given to this petition. 

That your Majesty may enjoy every felicity through a long and 
glorious reign, over loyal and happy subjects, and that your descend- 
ants may inherit your prosperity and dominions till time shall be no 
more, is, and always will be, our sincere and fervent prayer. 



NOTE VI. PAGE 163. 

ADDRESSES, &c, 

OF THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, 1775, 
TO THE INHABITANTS OF CANADA.* 

To the oppressed Inhabitants of Canada : — 

Friends and Countrymen, — 

Alarmed by the designs of an arbitrary ministry, to extirpate the 
rights and liberties of all America, a sense of common danger con- 
spired with the dictates of humanity, in urging us to call your atten- 
tion, by our late address, to this very important object. 

Since the conclusion of the late war, we have been happy in 
considering you as fellow-subjects, and from the commencement of 
the present plan for subjugating the continent, we have viewed you 
as fellow-sufferers with us. As we were both entitled by the bounty 
of an indulgent Creator to freedom, and being both devoted by the 
cruel edicts of a despotic administration to common ruin, we per- 
ceived the fate of the Protestant and Catholic Colonies to be strongly 
linked together, and therefore invited you to join with us in resolving 
to be free, and in rejecting, with disdain, the fetters of slavery, how- 
ever artfully polished. 

We most sincerely condole with you on the arrival of that day, in 

* Adopted May 29, 1775. — Journals of Congress, vol. i., p. 100. 



ADDRESSES, &c., OF THE SECOND CONGRESS— 1775. 413 

the course of which, the sun could not shine on a single freeman in 
all your extensive dominions. Be assured, that your unmerited 
degradation has engaged the most unfeigned pity of your sister 
Colonies ; and we flatter ourselves you will not, by tamely bearing 
the yoke, suffer that pity to be supplanted by contempt. 

When hardy attempts are made to deprive men of rights bestowed 
by the Almighty, when avenues are cut through the most solemn 
compacts for the admission of despotism, when the plighted faith of 
government ceases to give security to dutiful subjects, and when the 
insidious stratagems and manoeuvres of peace become more terrible 
than the sanguinary operations of war, it is high time for them to 
assert those rights, and, with honest, indignation, oppose the torrent 
of oppression rushing in upon them. 

By the introduction of your present form of government, or rather 
present form of tyranny, you, and your wives, and your children, are 
made slaves. You have nothing that you. can call your own, and all 
the fruits of your labor and industry may be taken from you, whenever 
an avaricious Governor and a rapacious Council may incline to 
demand them. You are liable by their edicts to be transported into 
foreign countries to fight battles in which you have no interest, and 
to spill your blood in conflicts from which neither honor nor emolu 
ment can be derived : Nay, the enjoyment of your very religion, on 
the present system, depends on a Legislature in which you have no 
share, and over which you have no control, and your priests are 
exposed to expulsion, banishment, and ruin, whenever their wealth 
and possessions furrfish sufficient temptation. They cannot be sure 
that a virtuous prince will always fill the throne, and should a wicked 
or careless king concur with a wicked ministry in extracting the 
treasure and strength of your country, it is impossible to conceive to 
what variety and to what extremes of wretchedness you may, under 
the present establishment, be reduced. 

We are informed that you have already been called upon to waste 
your lives in a contest with us. Should you, by complying in this 
instance, assent to your new establishment, and a war break out with 
France, your wealth and your sons may be sent to perish in expedi- 
tions against their island's in the West Indies. 

It cannot be presumed that these considerations will have no weight 
with you, or that you are so lost to all sense of honor. We can 
never believe that the present race of Canadians are so degenerated 
as to possess neither the spirit, the gallantry, nor the courage of their 
ancestors. You certainly will not permit the infamy and disgrace 
of such pusillanimity to rest on your own heads, and the conse- 
quences of it on your children for ever. 

We, for our parts, are determined to live free or not at all ; and are 
resolved that posterity shall never reproach us for having brought 
slaves into the world. 

Permit us again to repeat that we are your friends, not your ene- 
mies, and be not imposed upon by those who may endeavor to 
create animosities. The taking of the fort and military stores at 
Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and the armed vessels on the lake, 



414 APPENDIX. 

was dictated by the great law of self-preservation. They were 
intended to annoy us, and to cut off that friendly intercourse and 
communication which has hitherto subsisted between you and us. 
We hope it has given you no uneasiness, and you may rely on our 
assurances, that these Colonies will pursue no measures whatever 
but such as a friendship and a regard for our mutual safety and 
interest may suggest. 

As our concern for your welfare entitles us to your friendship, we 
presume you will not, by doing us injury, reduce us to the dis- 
agreeable necessity of treating you as enemies. 

We yet entertain hopes of your uniting with us in the defence of 
our common liberty, and there is yet reason to believe, that should 
we join in imploring the attention of our sovereign to the unmerited 
and unparalleled oppressions of his American subjects, he will at 
length be undeceived, and forbid a licentious ministry any longer to 
riot in the ruins of the rights of mankind. 

Ordered, That the above letter be signed by the President. 



A DECLARATION, SETTING FORTH THE CAUSES AND NECESSITY OF 
THE COLONIES TAKING UP ARMS.* 

If it was possible for men, who exercise their reason, to believe 
that the divine Author of our existence intended a part of the human 
race to hold an absolute property in, and an unbounded power over, 
others, marked out by his infinite goodness and wisdom, as the ob- 
jects of a legal domination never rightfully resistible, however severe 
and oppressive, the inhabitants of these colonies might at least require 
from the parliament of Great Britain some evidence that this dreadful 
authority over them has been granted to that body. But a reverence 
for our great Creator, principles of humanity, and the dictates of 
common sense, must convince all those who reflect upon the subject 
that government was instituted to promote the welfare of mankind, 
and ought to be administered for the attainment of that end. The 
legislature of Great Britain, however, stimulated by an inordinate 
passion for a power not only unjustifiable, but which they know to 
be peculiarly reprobated by the very constitution of that kingdom, 
and desperate of success in any mode of contest where regard should 
be had to truth, law, or right, have at length, deserting those, at- 
tempted to affect their cruel and impolitic purpose of enslaving these 
colonies by violence, and have thereby rendered it necessary for us 
to close with their last appeal from reason to arms. Yet, however 
blinded that assembly may be by their intemperate rage for unlimited 
domination, so to slight justice and the opinion of mankind, we 
esteem ourselves bound by obligations of respect to the rest of the 
world to make known the justice of our cause. 

Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Great Britain, left 
their native land to seek on these shores a residence for civil and 
religious freedom. At the expense of their blood, at the hazard of 

* Adopted July G, 1775. — Journals of Congress, vol. i., p, 134. 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE SECOND CONGRESS— 1775 415 

iheir fortunes, without the least charge to their country from which 
they removed, by unceasing labor and an unconquerable spirit, they 
effected settlements in the distant and inhospitable wilds of America, 
then filled with numerous and warlike nations of barbarians. Socie- 
ties or governments vested with perfect legislatures were formed 
under charters from the crown, and an harmonious intercourse was 
established between the colonies and the kingdom from which they 
derived their origin. The mutual benefits of this union became in 
a short time so extraordinary as to excite astonishment. It is uni- 
versally confessed that the amazing increase of the wealth, strength, 
and navigation of the realm arose from this source, and the minister 
who so wisely and successfully directed the measures of Great 
Britain in the late war publicly declared, that these colonies enabled 
her to triumph over her enemies. Towards the conclusion of that 
war it pleased our sovereign to make a change in his counsels. 
From that fatal moment the affairs of the British empire began to 
fall into confusion, and gradually sliding from the summit of glorious 
prosperity, to which they had been advanced by the virtues and 
abilities of one man, are at length distracted by the convulsions that 
now shake it to its deepest foundations. The new ministry, finding 
the brave foes of Britain, though frequently defeated, yet still con- 
tending, took up the unfortunate idea of granting them a hasty peace, 
and of then subduing her faithful friends. 

These devoted colonies were judged to be in such a state, as to 
present victories without bloodshed, and all the easy emoluments of 
statuteable plunder. The uninterrupted tenor of their peaceable and 
respectful behavior from the beginning of colonization, their dutiful, 
zealous, and useful services during the war, though so recently and am- 
ply acknowledged in the most honorable manner by his majesty, by the 
late king, and by parliament, could not save them from the meditated 
innovations. Parliament was influenced to adopt the pernicious pro- 
ject, and assuming a new power over them have, in the course of 
eleven years, given such decisive specimens of the spirit and conse- 
quences attending this power, as to leave no doubt concerning the 
effects of acquiescence under it. They have undertaken to give and 
grant our money without our consent, though we have ever exercised 
an exclusive right to dispose of our own property ; statutes have been 
passed for extending the jurisdiction of admiralty and vice-admiralty 
courts beyond their ancient limits ; for depriving us of the accustomed 
and inestimable privilege of trial by jury, in cases affecting both life and 
property ; for suspending the legislature of one of the colonies ; for 
interdicting all commerce with the capital of another ; and for alter- 
ing fundamentally the form of government established by charter, 
and secured by acts of its own legislature solemnly confirmed by the 
crown ; for exempting the "murderers" of colonists from legal trial, 
and in effect from punishment ; for erecting in a neighboring pro- 
vince, acquired by the joint arms of Great Britain and America, a 
despotism dangerous to our very existence ; and for quartering 
soldiers upon the colonists in time of profound peace. It has also 



416 APPENDIX. 

been resolved in parliament, that colonists charged with committing 
certain offences shall be transported to England to be tried. 

But why should we enumerate our injuries in detail ? By one 
statute it is declared, that parliament can " of right make laws to bind 
us in all cases whatsoever." What is to defend us against so enor- 
mous, so unlimited a power ? Not a single man of those who 
assume it is chosen by us, or is subject to our control or influence ; 
but, on the contrary, they are all of them exempt from the operation 
of such laws, and an American revenue, if not diverted from the 
ostensible purposes for which it is raised, would actually lighten 
iheir own burdens in proportion as they increase ours. We saw the 
misery to which such despotism would reduce us. We for ten 
years incessantly and ineffectually besieged the throne as suppli- 
cants : we reasoned, we remonstrated with parliament in the most 
mild and decent language. 

Administration, sensible that we should regard these oppressive 
measures as freemen ought to do, sent over fleets and armies to 
enforce them. The indignation of the Americans was roused, it is 
true, but it was the indignation of a virtuous, loyal, and affectionate 
people. A congress of delegates from the united colonies was as- 
sembled at Philadelphia on the fifth day of last September. We 
resolved again to offer an humble and dutiful petition to the king, and 
also addressed our fellow subjects of Great Britain. We have pursued 
every temperate, every respectful measure ; we have even proceeded 
to break off our commercial intercourse with our fellow subjects, as 
the last peaceable admonition, that our attachment to no nation on 
earth should supplant our attachment to liberty. This, we flattered 
ourselves, was the ultimate step of the controversy ; but subsequent 
events have shown how vain was this hope of finding moderation in 
our enemies. 

Several threatening expressions against the Colonies were inserted 
in his Majesty's speech ; our petition, though we were told it was a 
decent one, and that his Majesty had been pleased to receive it gra- 
ciously, and to promise laying it before his Parliament, was huddled 
into both Houses among a bundle of American papers, and there 
neglected. The Lords and Commons in their address in the month 
of February, said, that " a rebellion at that time actually existed 
within the province of Massachusetts Bay ; and that those concerned 
in it had been countenanced and encouraged by unlawful combina- 
tions and engagements, entered into by his Majesty's subjects in 
several of the other Colonies ; and therefore they besought his Ma- 
jesty that he would take the most effectual measures to enforce due 
obedience to the laws and authority of the supreme -Legislature." 
Soon after, the commercial intercourse of whole Colonies, with for- 
eign countries, and with each other, was cut off by an act of Parlia- 
ment ; by another, several of them were entirely prohibited from the 
fisheries in the seas near their coasts, on which they alwa} r s depended 
for their sustenance ; and large reinforcements of ships and troops 
were immediately sent over to General Gage. 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE SECCWD CONGRESS— 1775. 417 

Fruitless were all the entreaties, arguments, and eloquence of an 
illustrious band of the most distinguished peers and commoners, who 
nobly and strenuously asserted the justice of our cause, to stay, or 
even to mitigate the heedless fury with which these accumulated 
and unexampled outrages were hurried on. Equally fruitless was 
the interference of the city of London, of Bristol, and many other 
respectable towns in our favor. Parliament adopted an insidious 
manoeuvre calculated to divide us, to establish a perpetual auction of 
taxations where Colony should bid against Colony, all of them unin- 
formed what ransom would redeem their lives, and thus to extort 
from us, at the point of the bayonet, the unknown sums that should 
be sufficient to gratify, if possible to gratify, ministerial rapacity, 
with the miserable indulgence left to us of raising, in our own mode, 
the prescribed tribute. What terms more rigid and humiliating 
could have been dictated by remorseless victors to conquered ene- 
mies ? In our circumstances to accept them, would be to deserve them. 

Soon after the intelligence of these proceedings arrived on this 
continent, General Gage, who in the course of the last year had 
taken possession of the town of Boston, in the province of Mas- 
sachusetts Bay, and still occupied it as a garrison, on the nineteenth 
day of April, sent out from that place a large detachment of his 
army, who made an unprovoked assault on the inhabitants of the 
said province, at the town of Lexington, as appears by the affidavits 
of a great number of persons, some of whom were officers and sol- 
diers of that detachment, murdered eight of the inhabitants, and 
wounded many others. From thence the troops proceeded in war- 
like array to the town of Concord, where they set upon another 
party of the inhabitants of the same province, killing several and 
wounding more, until compelled to retreat by the country people 
suddenly assembled to repel this cruel aggression. Hostilities, thus 
commenced by the British troops, have been since prosecuted by 
them without regard to faith or reputation. The inhabitants of Bos- 
ton being confined within that town by the General, their Governor, 
and having, in order to procure their dismission, entered into a treaty 
with him, it was stipulated that the said inhabitants, having deposited 
their arms with their own magistrates, should have liberty to depart, 
taking with them their other effects. They accordingly delivered up 
their arms, but in open violation of honor, in defiance of the obliga- 
tion of treaties, which even savage nations esteem sacred, the 
Governor ordered the arms deposited as aforesaid, that they might 
be preserved for their owners, to be seized by a body of soldiers : 
detained the greatest part of the inhabitants in the town, and com- 
pelled the few who were permitted to ictire, to leave their most 
valuable effects behind. 

By this perfidy wives are separated from their husbands, children 
from their parents, the aged and the sick from their relations and 
friends, who wish to attend and comfort them ; and those who have 
been used to live in plenty and even elegance, are reduced to deplo- 
rable distress. 

The General, further emulating his ministerial masters, by a pro 



418 APPENDIX. 

clamation bearing date on the twelfth day of June, after venting the 
grossest falsehoods and calumnies against the good people of these 
Colonies, proceeds to " declare them all, either by name or descrip- 
tion, to be rebels and traitors, to supersede the course of the common 
law, and instead thereof to publish and order the use and exercise 
of the law martial." His troops have butchered our countrymen, 
have wantonly burnt Charlestown, besides a considerable number of 
houses in other places ; our ships and vessels are seized ; the neces- 
sary supplies of provisions are intercepted, and he is exerting h*a 
utmost power to spread destruction and devastation around him. 

We have received certain intelligence that General Carleton, the 
Governor of Canada, is instigating the people of that province and 
the Indians to fall upon us ; and we have but too much reason to 
apprehend that schemes have been formed to excite domestic ene 
mies against us. In brief, a part of these Colonies now feel, and 
all of them are sure of feeling, as far as the vengeance of adminis- 
tration can inflict them, the complicated calamities of fire, sword, 
and famine. We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an 
unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or 
resistance by force. The latter is our choice. We have counted 
the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary 
slavery. Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surren- 
der that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and 
which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We 
cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding genera- 
tions to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we 
basely entail hereditary bondage upon them. 

Our cause is just : our union is perfect : our internal resources 
are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attain- 
able. We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine 
favor towards us, that his Providence would not permit us to be 
called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our 
present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike opera- 
tion, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. With 
hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, 
before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy 
of those powers which our beneficent Creator hath graciously 
bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies 
to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firm- 
ness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties ; 
being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live 
slaves. 

Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends and 
fellow-subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them that we 
mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily 
subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored. 
Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate measure, or in- 
duced us to excite any other nation to war against them. We have 
not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from Great 
Britain, and establishing independent States. We fight not for glory 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE SECOND CONGRESS— 1775. 419 

nor for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle 
of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation 
or even suspicion of offence. They boast of their privileges and 
civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death. 

In our native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birth- 
right, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it — for the 
protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of 
our forefathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we 
have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall 
cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being 
renewed shall be removed, and not before. 

With an humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and 
impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, we most devoutly implore 
his divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, 
to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and 
thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war. 



SECOND PETITION TO THE KING.* 
To the King's most Excellent Majesty. 
Most Gracious Sovereign : — 

We, your majesty's most faithful subjects, of the colonies of New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
the counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware, Mary- 
land, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, in behalf of our- 
selves and the inhabitants of these colonies, who have deputed us to 
represent them in general Congress, entreat your majesty's gracious 
attention to this our humble petition. 

The union between our mother country and these colonies, and the 
energy of mild and just government, produced benefits so remark- 
ably important, and afforded such an assurance of their permanency 
and increase, that the wonder and envy of other nations were excited, 
while they beheld Great Britain rising to a power the most extraor- 
dinary the world had ever known. 

Her rivals, observing there was no probability of this happy con- 
nexion being broken by civil dissensions, and apprehending its future 
effects, if left any longer undisturbed, resolved to prevent her receiv- 
ing such continual and formidable accessions of wealth and strength, 
by checking the growth of those settlements from which they were 
to be derived. 

In the prosecution of this attempt, events so unfavorable to the 
design took place, that every friend to the interest of Great Britain 
and these colonies, entertained pleasing and reasonable expectations 
of seeing an additional force and exertion immediately given to the 
operations of the union hitherto experienced, by an enlargement of 

* Adopted July S, 1775— Journals of Congress, Vol. i., p. 139. 



420 APPENDIX. 

the dominions of the crown, and the removal of ancient and warlike 
enemies to a greater distance. At the conclusion, therefore, of the 
late war, the most glorious and advantageous that ever had been car 
ried on by British arms, your loyal colonists having contributed to its 
success, by such repeated and strenuous exertions, as frequently 
procured them the distinguished approbation of your majesty, of the 
late king, and of parliament, doubted not but that they should be per- 
mitted, with the rest of the empire, to share in the blessings of peace, 
and the emoluments of victory and conquest. 

While these recent and honorable acknowledgments of their merits 
remained on record in the journals and acts of that august legislature, 
the parliament, undefaced by the imputation or even the suspicion 
of any offence, they were alarmed by a new system of statutes and 
regulations adopted for the administration of the colonies, that filled 
their minds with the most painful fears and jealousies ; and, to their 
inexpressible astonishment, perceived the danger of a foreign quarrel, 
quickly succeeded by domestic danger, in their judgment, of a more 
dreadful kind. 

Nor were these anxieties alleviated by any tendency in this system 
to promote the welfare of their mother country. For though its 
effects were more immediately felt by them, yet its influence appear- 
ed to be injurious to the commerce and prosperity of Great Britain. 

We shall decline the ungrateful task of describing the irksome 
variety of artifices, practised by many of your majesty's ministers, 
the delusive pretences, fruitless terrors, and unavailing severities, 
that have, from time to time, been dealt out by them, in their 
attempts to execute this impolitic plan, or of tracing, through a series 
of years past, the progress of the unhappy differences between Great 
Britain and these colonies, that have flowed from this fatal source. 

Your majesty's ministers, persevering in their measures, and pro- 
ceeding to open hostilities for enforcing them, have compelled us to 
arm in our own defence, and have engaged us in a controversy so 
peculiarly abhorrent to the affections of your still faithful colonists, 
that when we consider whom we must oppose in this contest, and if 
it continues, what may be the consequences, our own particular mis- 
fortunes are accounted by us only as parts of our distress. 

Knowing to what violent resentments, and incurable animosities, 
civil discords are apt to exasperate and inflame the contending par- 
ties, we think ourselves required by indispensable obligation to 
Almighty God, to your majesty, to our fellow subjects, and to our- 
selves, immediately to use all the means in our power, not incompa- 
tible with our safety, for stopping the further effusion of blood, and 
for averting the impending calamities that threaten the British 
empire. 

Thus called upon to address your majesty on affairs of such 
moment to America, and probably to all your dominions, we are ear- 
nestly desirous of performing this office, with the utmost deference 
for your majesty : and we therefore pray that your majesty's royal 
magnanimity and benevolence may make the most favorable construc- 
tion of our expressions on so uncommon an occasion. Could we 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE SECOND CONGRESS— 1775. 421 

tepresent in their full force, the sentiments that agitate the minds of 
us your dutiful subjects, we are persuaded your majesty would 
ascribe any seeming deviation from reverence in our language, and 
even in our conduct, not to any reprehensible intention, but to the 
impossibility of reconciling the usual appearances of respect, with a 
just attention to our own preservation against those artful and cruel 
enemies, who abuse your royal confidence and authority, for the pur- 
pose of effecting our destruction. 

Attached to your majesty's person, family, and government, with 
all the devotion that principle and affection can inspire, connected with 
Great Britain by the strongest ties that can unite societies, and de- 
ploring every event that tends in any degree to weaken them, we 
solemnly assure your majesty, that we not only desire the former 
harmony between her and these colonies may be restored, but that a 
concord may be established between them upon so firm a basis as to 
perpetuate its blessings, uninterrupted by any future dissensions, to 
succeeding generations in both countries, and to transmit your 
majesty's name to posterity, adorned with that signal and lasting 
glory that has attended the memory of those illustrious personages, 
whose virtues and abilities have extricated states from dangerous 
convulsions, and, by securing happiness to others, have erected the 
most noble and durable monuments to their own fame. 

We beg leave further to assure your majesty, that notwithstanding 
the sufferings of your loyal colonists, during the course of this pre- 
sent controversy, our breasts retain too tender a regard for the kingdom 
from which we derive our origin, to request such a reconciliation as 
might in any manner be inconsistent with her dignity or her welfare. 
These, related as we are to her, honor and duty, as well as inclina- 
tion, induce us to support and advance ; and the apprehensions that 
now oppress our hearts with unspeakable grief, being once removed, 
your majesty will find your faithful subjects on this continent ready and 
willing at all times, as they have ever been, with their lives and for- 
tunes, to assert and maintain the rights and interests of your majesty, 
and of our mother country. 

We, therefore, beseech your majesty, that your royal authority and 
influence may be graciously interposed to procure us relief from our 
afflicting fears and jealousies, occasioned by the system before mention- 
ed, and to settle peace through every part of your dominions, with all 
humility submitting to your majesty's wise consideration whether it 
may not be expedient for facilitating those important purposes, that 
your majesty be pleased to direct some mode, by which the united 
applications of your faithful colonists to the throne, in pursuance of 
their common councils, may be improved into a happy and perma- 
nent reconciliation : and that, in the meantime, measures may be 
taken for preventing the further destruction of the lives of your 
majesty' s subjects, and that such statutes as more immediately dis- 
tress any of your majesty's colonies may be repealed. 

For by such arrangements as your majesty's wisdom can form, for 
collecting the united sense of your American people, we are convinced 
your majesty would receive such satisfactory proofs of the disposition 



422 APPENDIX. 

of the colonists towards their sovereign and parent state, that the 
wished-for opportunity would soon be restored to them, of evincing 
the sincerity of their profession, by every testimony of devotion 
becoming the most dutiful subjects and the most affectionate 
colonists. 

That your majesty may enjoy a long and prosperous reign, and 
that your descendants may govern your dominions with honor to 
themselves, and happiness to their subjects, is our sincere prayer. 



ADDRESS TO THE ASSEMBLY OF JAMAICA.* 
Mr. Speaker, and. Gentlemen of the Assembly of Jamaica : 

We would think ourselves deficient in our duty, if we suffered 
this Congress to pass over, without expressing our esteem for the 
assembly of Jamaica. 

Whoever attends to the conduct of those who have been intrusted 
with the administration of British affairs, during these last twelve 
years, will discover in it a deliberate plan to destroy, in every part 
of the empire, the free constitution for which Britain has been so 
long and so justly- famed. With a dexterity, artful and wicked, they 
have varied the modes of attack, according to the different characters 
and circumstances of those whom they meant to reduce. In the 
East Indies where the effeminacy of the inhabitants promised an 
easy conquest, they thought it unnecessary to veil their tyrannic 
principle under the thinnest disguise. Without deigning even to pre- 
tend a justification of their conduct, they sacrificed the lives of 
millions to the gratification of their insatiable avarice and lust of 
power. In Britain, where the maxims of freedom were still known, 
but where luxury and dissipation had diminished the wonted reve- 
rence for them, the attack has been carried on in a more secret and 
indirect manner. Corruption has been employed to undermine 
them. The Americans are not enervated by effeminacy, like the in- 
habitants of India ; nor debauched by luxury, like those of Great 
Britain. It was, therefore, judged improper to assail them by 
bribery, or by undisguised force. Plausible systems were formed ; 
specious pretences were made. All the arts of sophistry were tried 
to show that the British ministry had by law a right to enslave us. 
The first and best maxims of the constitution, venerable to Britons 
and to Americans, were perverted and profaned. The power of par- 
liament, derived from the people, to bind the people, was extended 
over those from whom it was never derived. It is asserted, that, a 
standing army may be constitutionally kept among us, without our 
consent. Those principles, dishonorable to those who adopted 
them, and destructive to those to whom they were applied, were 
nevertheless carried into execution by the foes of liberty and of man- 
kind. Acts of parliament, ruinous to America, and unserviceable to 
Britain, were made to bind us ; armies maintained by the parliament 

* Adopted .Tulv 25, 1775 — Journals of Congress, Vol. i., p. 1G2, 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE SECOND CONGRESS— 1775. 423 

were sent over to secure their operation. The power, however, and 
the cunning of our adversaries, were alike unsuccessful. We refused 
to their parliaments an obedience, which our judgments disapproved 
of : we refused to their armies a submission, which spirits, unaccus- 
tomed to slavery, could not brook. 

But while we spurned a disgraceful subjection, we were far from 
running into rash or seditious measures of opposition. Filled with 
sentiments of loyalty to our Sovereign, and of affection and respect 
for our fellow-subjects in Britain, we petitioned, we supplicated, 
we expostulated ; our prayers were rejected ; our remonstrances 
were disregarded ; our grievances were accumulated. All this did 
not provoke us to violence. 

An appeal to the justice and humanity of those who had injured 
us, and were bound to redress our injuries, was ineffectual ; we next 
resolved to make an appeal to their interest, though by doing so, we 
knew we must sacrifice our own and (which gave us equal uneasi- 
ness) that of our friends, who had never offended us, and who were 
connected with us by a sympathy of feelings, under oppressions 
similar to our ow r n. We resolved to give up our commerce that we 
might preserve our liberty. We flattered ourselves that, when by 
withdrawing our commercial intercourse with Britain, which we 
had an undoubted right either to withdraw or continue, her trade 
should be diminished, ber revenues impaired, and her manufacturers 
unemployed, our ministerial foes would be induced by interest, or 
compelled by necessity, to depart from the plan of tyranny which 
they had so long pursued, and to substitute in its place a system 
more compatible with the freedom of America and justice of Bri- 
tain. That this scheme of non-importation and non-exportation 
might be productive of the desired effects, we were obliged to in- 
clude the islands in it. From this necessity, and from this necessity 
alone, has our conduct towards them proceeded. By converting 
your sugar-plantations into fields of grain, you can supply yourselves 
with the necessaries of life : While the present unhappy struggle 
shall continue we cannot do more. 

But why should we make any apology to the patriotic assembly 
of Jamaica, who know so well the value of liberty ; who are so 
sensible of the extreme danger to which ours is exposed ; and who 
foresee how certainly the destruction of ours must be followed by 
the destruction of their own ? 

We receive uncommon pleasure from observing the principles of 
our righteous opposition distinguished by your approbation : we 
feel the warmest gratitude for your pathetic mediation in our behalf 
with the crown. It was indeed unavailing — but are you to blame 1 
Mournful experience tells us that petitions are often rejected, while 
the sentiments and conduct of the petitioners entitle what they offer 
to a happier fate. 

That our petitions have been treated with disdain, is now become the 
smallest part of our complaint : Ministerial insolence is lost in minis- 
terial barbarity. It has, by an exertion peculiarly ingenious, pro- 
cured those very measures which it laid us under the hard necessity 



424 APPENDIX. 

of pursuing, to be stigmatized in Parliament as rebellious : It has 
employed additional fleets and armies for the infamous purpose of 
compelling us to abandon them : It has plunged us in all the horrors 
and calamities of civil war : It has caused the treasure and blood 
of Britons (formerly shed and expended for far other ends) to be spilt 
and wasted in the execrable design of spreading slavery over British 
America : It will not, however, accomplish its aim : In the worst 
of contingencies, a choice will still be left, which it never can pre- 
vent us from making. 

The peculiar situation of your island forbids your assistance. But 
we have your good wishes. From the good wishes of the friends 
of liberty and mankind, we shall always derive consolation. 



ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND.* 
Friends and Fellow Subjects : 

As the important contest into which we have been driven is now 
become interesting to every European state, and particularly affects 
the members of the British empire, we think it our duty to address 
you on the subject. We are desirous, as is natural to injured inno- 
cence, of possessing the good opinion of the virtuous and humane. 
We are peculiarly desirous of furnishing you with the true state of 
our motives and objects ; the better to enable you to judge of our 
conduct with accuracy, and determine the merits of the controversy 
with impartiality and precision. 

However incredible it may appear that, at this enlightened period, 
the leaders of a nation which in every age has sacrificed hecatombs 
of her bravest patriots on the altar of liberty, should presume gravely 
to assert, and by force of arms attempt to establish an arbitrary sway 
over the lives, liberties, and property of their fellow subjects in 
America, it is, nevertheless, a most deplorable and indisputable 
truth. 

These colonies have, from the time of their first settlement for 
near two centuries, peaceably enjoyed those very rights of which the 
ministry have for ten years past endeavored by fraud and by violence 
to deprive them. At the conclusion of the last war the genius of 
England and the spirit of wisdom, as if offended at the ungrateful 
treatment of their sons, withdrew from the British counsels, and left 
that nation a prey to a race of ministers with whom ancient English 
honesty and benevolence disdained to dwell. From that period 
jealousy, discontent, oppression, and discord, have raged among all 
his majesty's subjects, and filled every part of his dominions with 
distress and complaint. 

Not content with our purchasing of Britain, at her own price, 
clothing and a thousand other articles used by near three millions of 
people on this vast continent — not satisfied with the amazing profits 
arising from the monopoly of our trade, without giving us either time 

* Adopted July 28, 1775. — Journals of Congress, vol i., p. 168. 



ADDRESSES', &c., OF THE SECOND CONGRESS— 1775. 425 

to breathe after a long, though glorious war, or the least credit for the 
blood and treasure we have expended in it ; notwithstanding the zeal 
we had manifested for the service of our sovereign, and the warmest 
attachment to the constitution of Britain and the people of England, a 
black and horrid design was formed to convert us from freemen into 
slaves, from subjects into vassals, and from friends into enemies. 

Taxes, for the first time since we landed on the American shores, 
were without our consent imposed upon us ; an unconstitutional 
edict to compel us to furnish necessaries for a standing army that we 
wished to see disbanded, was issued ; and the legislature of New 
York suspended for refusing to comply with it. Our ancient and 
inestimable right of trial by jury was in many instances abolished, 
and the common law of the land made to give place to admiralty 
jurisdiction. Judges were rendered, by the tenure of their commis- 
sions, entirely dependent on the will of a minister. New crimes 
were arbitrarily created, and new courts, unknown to the constitu- 
tion, instituted. Wicked and insidious governors have been set 
over us ; and dutiful petitions for the removal even of the notoriously 
infamous Governor Hutchinson were branded with the opprobrious 
appellations of scandalous and defamatory. Hardy attempts have 
been made, under color of parliamentary authority, to seize Ameri- 
cans and carry them to Great Britain to be tried for offences com- 
mitted in the colonies. Ancient charters have no longer remained 
sacred ; that of the Massachusetts Bay was violated, and their form 
of government essentially mutilated and transformed. On pretence 
of punishing a violation of some private property, committed by a 
few disguised individuals, the populous and flourishing town of 
Boston was surrounded by fleets and armies, its trade destroyed, its 
port blocked up, and thirty thousand citizens subjected to all the 
miseries attending so sudden a convulsion in their commercial metro- 
polis ; and to remove every obstacle to the vigorous execution of this 
system of oppression, an act of parliament was passed evidently cal- 
culated to indemnify those who might in the prosecution of it even 
embrue their hands in the blood of the inhabitants. 

Though pressed by such an accumulation of undeserved injuries, 
America still remembered her duty to her sovereign. A congress-, 
consisting of deputies from twelve united colonies, assembled ; they, 
in the most respectful terms, laid their grievances at the foot of the 
throne, and implored his majesty's interposition in their behalf. 
They also agreed to suspend all trade with Great Britain, Ireland, 
and the West Indies, hoping, by this peaceable mode of opposition, 
to obtain that justice from the British ministry which had been so 
long solicited in vain. And here permit us to assure you, that it was 
with the utmost reluctance we could prevail upon ourselves to cease 
our commercial connexion with your island. Your parliament had 
done us no wrong. You had ever been friendly to the rights of man- 
kind : and we acknowledge with pleasure and gratitude that your 
nation has produced patriots who have nobly distinguished themselves 
in the cause of humanity and America. On the other hand, we 

28 



426 APPENDIX. 

were not ignorant that the labor and manufactures of Ireland, like 
those of the silk-worm, were of little moment to herself; but served 
only to give luxury to those who neither toil nor spin. We per- 
ceived that if we continued our commerce with you, our agreement 
not to import from Great Britain would be fruitless, and were there- 
fore compelled to adopt a measure to which nothing but absolute 
necessity would have reconciled us. It gave us, however, some con- 
solation to reflect that should it occasion much distress the fertile 
regions of America would afford you a safe asylum from poverty, 
and in time from oppression also ; an asylum in which many thou- 
sands of your countrymen have found hospitality, peace, and 
affluence, and become united to us by all the ties of consanguinity, 
mutual interest, and affection. Nor did congress stop here : flattered 
by a pleasing expectation that the justice, and humanity which had 
so long characterized the English nation would, on proper applica- 
tion, afford us relief, they represented their grievances in an affec- 
tionate address to their brethren in Britain, and entreated their aid 
and interposition in behalf of these colonies. 

The more fully to evince their respect for their sovereign, the un- 
happy people of Boston were requested by the congress to submit with 
patience to their fate ; and all America united in a resolution to ab- 
stain from every species of violence. During this period that devoted 
town suffered unspeakably. Its inhabitants were insulted and their 
properly violated. Still relying on the clemency and justice of his 
majesty and the nation, they permitted a few regiments to take posses- 
sion of their town, to surround it with fortifications, and to cut off all 
intercourse between them and their friends in the country. 

With anxious expectation did all America wait the event of their 
petition. All America laments its fate. Their prince was deaf to 
their complaints ; and vain were all attempts to impress him with a 
sense of the sufferings of his American subjects, of the cruelty of 
their task-masters, and of the many plagues which impended over 
his dominions. Instead of directions for a candid inquiry into our 
grievances, insult was added to oppression, and our long forbearance 
rewarded by the imputation of cowardice. Our trade with foreign 
states was prohibited ; and an act of parliament passed to prevent 
our even fishing on our own coasts. Our peaceable assemblies, for 
the purpose of consulting the common safety, were declared sedi- 
tious ; and our asserting the very rights which placed the crown of 
Great Britain on the heads of the three successive princes of the house 
of Hanover, styled rebellion. Orders were given to reinforce the 
troops in America. The wild and barbarous savages of the wilder- 
ness have been solicited by gifts to take up the hatchet against us, 
and instigated to deluge our settlements with the blood of innocent 
and defenceless women and children. The whole country was 
moreover alarmed with the horrors of domestic insurrections. Re- 
finements in parental cruelty, at which the genius of Britain must 
blush ! Refinements which admit not of being even recited without 
horror, or practised without infamy ! We should be happy were these 



ADDRESSES, &c, OF THE SECOND CONGRESS— 1775. 427 

sark machinations the mere suggestions of suspicion. We are sorry 
to declare that we are possessed of the most authentic and indubitable 
evidence of their reality. 

The ministry, bent on pulling down the pillars of the constitution, 
2ndeavored to erect the standard of despotism in America ; and if 
successful, Britain and Ireland may shudder at the consequences. 

Three of their most experienced generals are sent to wage war 
with their fellow subjects ; and America is amazed to find the name 
of Howe in the catalogue of her enemies : she loved his brother. 

Despairing of driving the colonists to resistance by any other 
means than actual hostility, a detachment of the army at Boston 
marched into the country in all the array of war, and, unprovoked, 
fired upon and killed several of the inhabitants. The neighboring 
farmers suddenly assembled and repelled the attack. From this, all 
communication between the town and country was intercepted. The 
citizens petitioned the general for permission to leave the town, and 
he promised, on surrendering their arms, to permit them to depart 
with their other effects. They accordingly surrendered their arms, 
and the general violated his faith. Under various pretences passports 
were delayed and denied ; and many thousands of the inhabitants 
are at this day confined in the town in the utmost wretchedness and 
want. The lame, the blind, and the sick, have indeed been turned 
out into the neighboring fields ; and some, eluding the vigilance of 
the sentries, have escaped from the town by swimming to the adja- 
cent shores. 

The war having thus begun on the part of General Gage's troops, 
the country armed and embodied. The reinforcements from Ireland 
soon after arrived ; a vigorous attack was then made upon the pro- 
vincials. In their march the troops surrounded the town of Charles- 
town, consisting of about four hundred houses, then recently 
abandoned to escape the fury of a relentless soldiery. Having 
plundered the houses, they set fire to the town and reduced it to 
ashes. To this wanton waste of property, unknown to civilized 
nations, they were prompted the better to conceal their approach 
under cover of the smoke. A shocking mixture of cowardice and 
cruelty, which then first tarnished the lustre of British arms when 
aimed at a brother's breast ! But, blessed be God, they were 
restrained from committing further ravages, by the loss of a very 
considerable part of their army, including many of their most 
experienced officers. The loss of the inhabitants was inconsiderable. 

Compelled, therefore, to behold thousands of our countrymen 
imprisoned, and men, women, and children involved in promiscuous 
and unmerited misery ! When we find all faith at an end, and 
sacred treaties turned into tricks of state ; when we perceive our 
friends and kinsmen massacred, our habitations plundered, our 
houses in flames, and their once-happy inhabitants fed only by the 
hand of charity ; who can blame us for endeavoring to restrain the 
progress of desolation ? who can censure our repelling the attacks 
of such a barbarous band ? who, in such circumstances, would not 
obey the great, the universal, the divine law of self-preservation ? 



428 APPENDIX. 

Though vilified as wanting spirit, we are determined to behave 
like men — though insulted and abused, we wish for reconciliation — 
though defamed as seditious, we are ready to obey the laws — and 
though charged with rebellion, will cheerfully bleed in defence of 
our sovereign in a righteous cause. What more can we say ? What 
more can we offer ? 

But we forbear to trouble you with a tedious detail of the various 
and fruitless offers and applications we have repeatedly made, not 
for pensions, for wealth, or for honors, but for the humble boon of 
being permitted to possess the fruits of honest industry, and to 
enjoy the degree of liberty to which God and the constitution have 
given us an undoubted right. 

Blessed with an indissoluble union, with a variety of internal re- 
sources, and with a firm reliance on the justice of the supreme Dis- 
poser of all human events, we have no doubt of rising superior to all 
the machinations of evil and abandoned ministers. We already antici- 
pate the golden period when liberty, with all the gentle arts of peace 
and humanity, shall establish her mild dominion in this western world, 
and erect eternal monuments to the memory of those virtuous patriots 
and martyrs who shall have fought and bled and suffered in her cause. 

Accept our most grateful acknowledgments for the friendly dis- 
position you have always shown towards us. We know that you 
are not without your grievances. We sympathize with you in your 
distress, and are pleased to find that the design of subjugating us 
has persuaded administration to dispense to Ireland some vagrant 
rays of ministerial sunshine. Even the tender mercies of govern- 
ment have long been cruel to you. In the rich pastures of Ireland 
many hungry parricides have fed, and grown strong to labor in its 
destruction. We hope the patient abiding of the meek may not 
always be forgotten ; and God grant that the iniquitous schemes of 
extirpating liberty from the British empire may be soon defeated. 
But we should be wanting to ourselves — we should be perfidious to 
posterity — we should be unworthy that ancestry from which we 
derive our descent, should we submit with folded arms to military 
butchery and depredation, to gratify the lordly ambition, or sate the 
avarice of a British ministry. In defence of our persons and proper- 
ties, under actual violation, we have taken up arms ; when that 
violence shall be removed, and hostilities cease on the part of the 
aggressors, they shall cease on our part also. For the achievement 
of this happy event, we confide in the good offices of our fellow 
subjects beyond the Atlantic. Of their friendly dispositions we do 
not yet despond ; aware, as they must be, that they have nothing 
more to expect from the same common enemy than the humble favor 
of being last devoured. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

JULY 4th, 1776. 



THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF 
AMERICA IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one 
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them 
with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the sepa 
rate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's 
God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind 
requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the 
separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident ; that all men are created 
equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalien- 
able rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness ; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted 
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the go- 
verned ; that, whenever any form of government becomes destruc- 
tive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish 
it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such 
principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall 
seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, 
mdeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be 
changed for light and transient causes ; and, accordingly, all expe- 
rience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while 
evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms 
to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and 
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to 
reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their 
duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for 
their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these 
colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to 
alter their former systems of government. The history of the pre- 
sent king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and 
usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an abso- 
lute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted 
to a candid world : — 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and neces- 
sary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and 
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his 
assent should be obtained ; and, when so suspended, he has utterly 
neglected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large 
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of 
representation in the legislature — a right inestimable to them, and 
formidable to tyrants only. 



430 APPENDIX. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, un- 
comfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records, 
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his 
measures. 

He has tdissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing 
with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause 
others to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of 
annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise — 
the state remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of 
invasion from without and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states — for 
that purpose obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners, re- 
fusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising 
the conditions of new appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his 
assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of 
their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms 
of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, with- 
out the consent of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior 
to, the civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign 
to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws — giving his 
assent to their acts of pretended legislation. 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us ; 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any 
murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these 
states ; 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world ; 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent ; 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury ; 

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended 
offences ; 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 
province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging 
its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instru- 
ment for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies ; 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, 
and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments ; 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves in- 
vested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his pro- 
tection and waging war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, 
and destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transoorting large armies of foreign mercenaries 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE— 1776. 431 

to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already 
begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled 
in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a 
civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive^on the high 
seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners 
of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endea- 
vored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian 
savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruc- 
tion of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress 
in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been 
answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is 
thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be 
the ruler of a free people. 

■ Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. 
We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts, by their legis- 
lature, to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have 
reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement 
here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, 
and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to 
disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our 
connexions and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the 
voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acqui- 
esce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold 
them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, 
friends. 

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, 
in general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of 
the World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by 
the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish 
and declare that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, 
free and independent states ; that t^ey are absolved from all alle- 
giance to the British crown, and tha$ all political connexion between 
them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dis- 
solved ; and that, as free and independent states, they have full 
power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish com- 
merce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states 
may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm 
reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge 
to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 

The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed 
and signed by the following members : — 



SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 




SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 435 



IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, JULY 4, 1776. 

The following list of members of the continental Congress, who signed the Declara- 
tion of Independence (although the names are included in the general list of that 
Congress, from 1774 to 1788), is given separately, for the purpose of showing the 
places and dates of their birth, and the time of their respective deaths, for con- 
venient reference. 







DELEGATED 




NAMES OF THE SIGNERS. 


BORN AT 


FROM 


DIED 


Adams, John 


Braintree, Mass., 19 Oct. 1735 


Massachusetts, 


4 July, 1826 


Adams, Samuel . 


Boston, " 27 Sep. 1722 


Massachusetts, 


2 Oct., 1803 


Bartlett, Jo.siah . 


Amesbury, " in Nov. 1729 


New Hampshire, 


19 May, 1795 


Braxton, Carter . 


Newington, Va., 10 Sep. 1736 


Virginia, 


10 Oct., 1797 


Carroll, Cha's, of Car'lton 


Annapolis, Md., 20 Sep. 1737 


Maryland, 


14 Nov., 1832 


Chase, Samuel 


Somerset co , Md., 17 Apr. 1741 


Maryland, 


19 June, 1811 


Clark, Abraham . 


Ehzabetht'n, N.J. 15 Feb. 1726 


New Jersey, 


— Sept., 1794 


Clymer, George . 


Philadelphia, Penn., in 1739 


Pennsylvania. 


23 Jan., 1813 


Ellery, William . 


Newport, R. I., 22 Dec. 1727 


R. I. & Prov. PI., 


15 Feb., 1820 


Floyd, William . 


Suffolk co., N. Y., 17 Dec. 1734 


New York, 


4 Aug., 1821 


Franklin, Benjamin 


Boston, Mass., 17 Jan. 1706 


Pennsylvania, 


17 April, 1790 


Gerry, Elbridge . 


Marblehead, Mass., 17 Jul. 1744 


Massachusetts, 


23 Nov., 1814 


Gwinnet, Button . 


England, in 1732 


Georgia, 


27 May, 1777 


Hall, Lyman 


Conn., in 1731 


Georgia, 


— Feb., 1790 


Hancock, John 


Braintree, Mass., in 1737 


Massachusetts, 


8 Oct., 1793 


Harrison, Benjamin 


Berkely, Virginia, 


Virginia, 


— April, 1791 


Hart, John . 


Hopewell, N. J., about 1715 


New Jersey, 


•, 1780 


Heyward, Thomas, jr. 


St. Luke's, 8. C, in 1746 


South Carolina, 


— Mar., 1809 


Hewes, Joseph . 


Kingston, N. J., in 1730 


North Carolina, 


10 Nov., 1779 


Hooper, William 


Boston, Mass., 17 June, 1742 


North Carolina, 


— Oct., 1790 


Hopkins, Stephen 


Scituate, " 7 Mar. 1707 


R. I. & Prov. PI. 


13 July, 1785 


Hopkinson, Francis 


Philadelphia, Penn., in 1737 


New Jersey, 


9 May, 1790 


Huntington, Samuel . 


Windham, Conn., 3 July, 1732 


Connecticut, 


5 Jan., 1796 


Jefferson, Thomas 


Shad well, Va., 13 Apr. 1743 


Virginia, 


4 July, 1826 


Lee, Francis Lightfoot 


Stratford, " 14 Oct. 1734 


Virginia, 


— April, 1797 


Lee, Richard Henry . 


Stratford, " 20 Jan. 1732 


Virginia, 


19 June, 1794 


Lewis, Francis . 


Landaff, Wales, in Mar. 1713 


New York, 


30 Dec, 1803 


Livingston, Philip 


Albany, N. Y., 15 Jan. 1716 


New York, 


12 June, 1778 


Lynch, Thomas, jr. 


St. George's, S. C, 5 Aug. 1749 


South Carolina, 


lost at sea 1779 


M Kean, Thomas 


Chester co.. Pa., 19 Mar., 1734 


Delaware, 


24 June, 1817 


Middleton, Arthur 


Middleton Place, S. C, in 1743 


South Carolina, 


1 Jan., 1787 


Morris, Lewis 


Morrisania, N. Y., in 1726 


New York, 


22 Jan., 1798 


Morris, Robert 


Lancashire, Eng., Jan. 1733-'4 


Pennsylvania, 


8 May, 1806 


Morton, John 


Ridley, Penn., in 1724 


Pennsylvania, 


— April, 1777 


Nelson, Thomas, jr. 


York, Virginia, 26 Dec. 1738 


Virginia, 


4 Jan., 1789 


Paca, William 


Wye-Hill, Md., 31 Oct. 1740 


Maryland, 


, 1799 


Paine, Robert Treat . 


Boston, Mass., in 1731 


Massachusetts, 


11 May, 1804 


Penn, John 


Caroline co., Va., 17 May, 1741 


North Carolina, 


26 Oct., 1809 


Read, George 


Cecil co., Md., in 1734 


Delaware, 


, 1798 


Rodney, Caesar . 


Dover, Delaware, in 1730 


Delaware, 


, 1783 


Ross, George 


New Castle, Del., in 1730 


Pennsylvania, 


— July, 1779 


Rush, Benjamin, M. D. 


Byberry, Penn., 24 Dec. 1745 


Pennsylvania, 


19 April, 1813 


Rutledge, Edward 


Charleston, S. C, in Nov. 1749 


South Carolina, 


23 Jan., 1S00 


Sherman, Roger . 


Newton, Mass., 19 Apr. 1721 


Connecticut, 


23 July, 1793 


Smith, James 


, Ireland, 


Pennsylvania, 


11 July, 1806 


Stockton, Richard 


Princeton, N. J., 1 Oct. 1730 


New Jersey, 


28 Feb., 1781 


Stone, Thomas 


Charles co., Md., in 1742 


Maryland, 


5 Oct., 1787 


Taylor, George . 


, Ireland, in 1716 


Pennsylvania, 


23 Feb., 1781 


Thornton, Matthew 


a in 1711 


New Hampshire, 


24 June, 1803 




Walton, George . 


Frederick co., Va., in 1740 


Georgia, 


2 Feb., 1804 


Whipple, William 


Kittery, Maine, in 1730 


New Hampshire, 


28 Nov., 1785 


Williams, William 


Lebanon, Conn., 8 Apr. 1731 


Connecticut, 


2 Aug. 1811 


W ilson, James . 


Scotland, about 1742 


Pennsylvania, 


28 Aug., 1798 


Witherspoon, John 


Yester, Scotland, 5 Feb. 1722 


New Jersey, 


15 Nov., 1794 


Wolcott, Oliver . 


Windsor, Conn.. 26 Nov. 1726 


Connecticut, 


1 Dec, 1797 


Wyihe, George . 


Elizabeth city co., Va., 1726 


Virginia, 


8 June, 1806 



436 APPENDIX. 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, 
DELEGATES OF THE STATES AFFIXED TO OUR NAMES, SEND GREETING. 

Whereas, the delegates of the United States of America in Congress 
assembled did, on the fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven, and in the second year 
of the independence of America, agree to certain articles of confederation 
and perpetual Union between the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts 
Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, and Georgia, in the words following, viz. : — 

Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the States of New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Isla?id and Providence Planta- 
tions, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. 

Article 1. The style of this confederacy shall be," The United States 
of America." 

Article 2. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independ- 
ence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this con- 
federation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled. 

Article 3. The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league 
of friendship with each other for their common defence, the security of 
their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare ; binding themselves 
to assist each other against all force offered to, or attacks made upon 
them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any 
other pretence whatever. 

Article 4. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship, and 
intercourse among the people of the different states in this Union, the free 
inhabitants of each of these states, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from 
justice, excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free 
citizens in the several states ; and the people of each state shall have free 
ingress and regress to and from any other state, and shall enjoy therein 
all the privileges of trade and commerce subject to the same duties, im- 
positions, and restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof respectively, provided 
that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of 
property imported into any state to any other state, of which the owner is 
an inhabitant ; provided also, that no imposition, duties, or restriction, 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 437 

shall be laid by any state on the property of the United States or either 
of them. 

If any person guilty of or charged with treason, felony, or other high 
misdemeanor, in any state, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of 
the United States, he shall, upon demand of the governor or executive 
power of the state from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the 
state, having jurisdiction of his offence. 

Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these states to the records, 
acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other 
state. 

Article 5. For the more convenient management of the general interests 
of the United States, delegates ahall be annually appointed in such manner 
as the legislature of each state shall direct to meet in Congress on the 
first Monday in November, in every year, with a power reserved to each 
state to recall its delegates or any of them, at any time within the year, 
and to send others in their stead for the remainder of the year. 

No state shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor by 
more than seven members ; and no person shall be capable of being a 
delegate for more than three years in any term of six years ; nor shall any 
person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the United 
States, for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, 
or emoluments of any kind. 

Each state shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of the states, 
and while they act as members of the commite* of the states. 

In determining questions in the United States in Congress assembled, 
each state shall have one vote. 

Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or 
questioned in any court or place out of Congress ; and the members of 
Congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests and imprison- 
ments, during the time of their going to and from and attendance on Con- 
gress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. 

Article 6. No state, without the consent of the United States in Con- 
gress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, 
or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty, with any king, 
prince, or state ; nor shall any person holding any office of profit or trust 
under the United States, or any of them, accept of any present, emolument, 
office or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state ; 
nor shall the United States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant 
any title of nobility. 

No two or more states shall enter into any treaty, confederation, or 
alliance whatever, between them, without the consent of the United States 
in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the 
same is to be entered into and how long it shall continue. 

No state shall lay any imposts or duties, which may interfere with any 
stipulations in treaties entered into by the United States in Congress as- 
sembled, with any king, prince, or state, in pursuance of any treaties al- 
ready proposed by Congress to the courts of France and Spain. 

No vessel-of-war shall be kept up in time of peace by any state, except 
such number only as shall be deemed necessary by the United States in 
Congress assembled for the defence of such state or its trade ; nor shall 
any body of forces be kept up by any state in time of peace, except such 
number only as in the judgment of the United States in Congress as- 



43S APPENDIX. 

sembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for 
the defence of such state ; but every state shall always keep up a well- 
regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred, and 
shall provide and have constantly ready for use, in public stores, a due 
number of field-pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammu- 
nition, and camp equipage. 

No state shall engage in any war without ihe consent of the United 
States in Congress assembled, unless such state be actually invaded by 
enemies or shall have received certain advice of a resolution being formed 
bv some nation of Indians to invade such state, and the danger is so im- 
minent as not to admit of a delay till the United States in Congress as- 
sembled can be consulted ; nor shall any state grant commissions to any 
ships or vessels-of-war, nor letters of marque or reprisal, except it be after 
a declaration of war by the United States in Congress assembled, and then 
only against the kingdom or state, and the subjects thereof, against which 
war has been so declared, and under such regulations as shall be estab- 
lished by the United States in Congress assembled, unless such state be 
infested by pirates, in which case vessels-of-war may be fitted out for that 
occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall continue, or until the United 
States in Congress assembled shall determine otherwise. 

Article 7. When land forces are raised by any state for the common 
defence, all officers of or under the rank of colonel, shall be appointed by 
the legislature of each state respectively, by whom such forces shall be 
raised, or in such manner»as such state shall direct, and all vacancies 
shall be filled up by the state which first made the appointment. 

Article 8. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be 
incurred for the common defence or general welfare, and allowed by the 
United States in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common 
treasury, which shall be supplied by the several states in proportion to the 
value of all land within each state granted to or surveyed for any person, 
as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall be estima- 
ted according to such mode as the United States in Congress assembled 
shall from time to time direct and appoint. 

The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the 
authority and direction of the legislatures of the several states, within the 
time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. 

Article 9. The United States in Congress assembled shall have the 
sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war, ex- 
cept in the cases mentioned in the sixth article — of sending and receiving 
ambassadors — entering into treaties and alliances ; provided, that no treaty 
of commerce shall be made whereby the legislative power of the respective 
states shall be restrained from imposing such imposts and duties on 
foreigners as their own people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the 
exportation or importation of any species of goods or commodities what- 
soever — of establishing rules for deciding in all cases, what captures on 
land or water shall be legal, and in what manner prizes taken by land or 
naval forces in the service of the United States shall be divided or appro- 
priated — of granting letters of marque and reprisal in times of peace — ap- 
pointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high 
seas, and establishing courts for receiving and determining finally appeals 
in all cases of captures : provided, that no member of Congress shall be 
appointed a judge of any of the said courts. 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 430 

The United States in Congress assembled shall also be the last resort 
on appeal in all disputes and differences now subsisting or that hereafter 
may arise between two or more states concerning boundary, jurisdiction, 
or any other cause whatever ; which authority shall always be exercised 
in the manner following : whenever the legislative or executive authority 
or lawful agent of any state in controversy with another shall present a 
petition to Congress, stating the matter in question, and praying for a 
hearing, notice thereof shall be given by order of Congress to the legis- 
lative or executive authority of the other state in controversy, and a day 
assigned for the appearance of the parties, by their lawful agents, who 
shall then be directed to appoint by joint consent commissioners or judges 
to constitute a court for hearing and determining the matter in question ; 
but if they can not agree, Congress shall name three persons out of each 
of the United States, and from the list of such persons each party shall 
alternately strike out one, the petitioners beginning until the number shall 
be reduced to thirteen ; and from that number not less than seven nor 
more than nine names, as Congress shall direct shall, in the presence of 
Congress, be drawn out by lot ; and the persons whose names shall be so 
drawn, or any five of them, shall be commissioners or judges, to hear and 
finally determine the controversy, so always as a major part of the judges, 
who shall hear the cause, shall agree in the determination : and if either 
party shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, without showing reasons 
which Congress shall judge sufficient, or being present shall refuse to 
strike, the Congress shall proceed to nominate three persons out of each 
state, and the secretary of Congress shall strike in behalf of such party 
absent or refusing ; and the judgment and sentence of the court to be ap- 
pointed in the manner before prescribed, shall be final and conclusive , 
and if any of the parties shall refuse to submit to the authority of such 
court, or to appear, or defend their claim or cause, the court shall never- 
theless proceed to pronounce sentence or judgment, which shall in like 
manner be final and decisive, the judgment or sentence and other proceed- 
ings, being in either case transmitted to Congress, and lodged among the 
acts of Congress for the security of the parties concerned : provided, that 
every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an oath, to be 
administered by one of the judges of the supreme or superior court of the 
state, where the cause shall be tried, " well and truly to hear and deter- 
mine the matter in question, according to the best of his judgment, without 
favor, affection, or hope of reward :" provided also, that no state shall be 
deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States. 

All controversies concerning the private right of soil, claimed under 
different grants of two or more states, whose jurisdiction as they may 
respect such lands and the states which passed such grants are adjusted, 
the said grants or either of them being at the same time claimed to have 
originated antecedent to such settlement of jurisdiction, shall, on the peti- 
tion of either party to the Congress of the United States, be finally deter- 
mined, as near as may be, in the same manner as is before prescribed for 
deciding disputes respecting territorial jurisdiction between different 
states. 

The United States in Congress assembled shall also have the sole and 
exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck 
by their own authority, or by that of the respective states — fixing the 
standard of weights and measures throughout the United States — regulating 



440 APPENDIX. 

the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians not members of any of the 
states ; provided that the legislative right of any state within its own limits 
Le not infringed or violated — establishing and regulating postoffices from 
one state to another throughout all the United States, and exacting such 
postage on the papers passing through the same, as may be requisite to 
defray the expenses of the said office — appointing all officers of the hind 
forces in the service of the United States excepting regimental officers — 
appointing all the officers of the naval forces, and commissioning all 
officers whatever in the service of the United States — making rules for the 
government and regulation of the said land and naval forces, and directing 
their operations. 

The United States in Congress assembled shall have authority to ap- 
point a committee to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denominated " a 
committee of the states," and to consist of one delegate from each state ; 
and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary 
for managing the general affairs of the United States, under their direc- 
tion — to appoint one of their number to preside, provided that no person 
be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any 
term of three years — to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be 
raised for the service of the United States, and to appropriate and apply 
the same for defraying the public expenses — to borrow money or emit 
bills on the credit of the United States, transmitting every half year to the 
respective states an account of the sums of money so borrowed or emitted 
— to build and equip a navy — to agree upon the number of land forces, and 
to make requisitions from each state for its quota, in proportion to the 
number of white inhabitants in such state ; which requisition shall be 
binding, and thereupon the legislature of each state shall appoint the regi- 
mental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm, and equip them, in a soldier- 
like manner, at the expense of the United States ; and the officers and 
men so clothed, armed, and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, 
and within the time agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled : 
but if the United States in Congress assembled, shall, on consideration o( 
circumstances, judge proper that any state should not raise men or should 
raise a smaller number than its quota, and that any other state should raise 
a greater number of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall 
be raised, officered, clothed, armed, and equipped, in the same manner as 
the quota of such state, unless the legislature of such state shall judge 
that such extra number can not safely be spared out of the same ; in which 
case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and equip, as many of such 
extra number as they judge can be safely spared. And the officers 
and men so clothed, armed, and equipped, shall march to the place ap- 
pointed, and within the time agreed on by the Umteu states in Congress 
assembled. 

The United States in Congress assembled shall never engage in a war, 
nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into 
any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, 
nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the defence and wel- 
fare of the United States or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money 
on the credit of the United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon 
the number of vessels-of-war to be built or purchased, or the number of 
land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander-in-chief of the 
army or navy, unless nine states assent to the same ; nor shall a question 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 441 

on any other point, except for adjourning from day to day, be determined, 
unless by the votes of a majority of the United States in Congress as- 
sembled. 

The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to anv 
time within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that 
no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six 
months ; and shall publish the journal of their proceedings monthly, ex- 
cept such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations, 
as in their judgment require secresy ; and the yeas and nays of the dele- 
gates of each state on any question shall be entered on the journal, when 
it is desired by any delegate ; and the delegates of a state, or any of them, 
at his or their request, shall be furnished with a transcript of the said 
journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the legis- 
latures of the several stales. 

Article 10. The committee of the states, or any nine of them, shall be 
authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of 
Congress as the United States in Congress assembled, by the consent of 
nine states, shall from time to time, think expedient to vest them with ; 
provided that no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise 
of which, by the articles of confederation, the voice of nine states in the 
Congress of the United States assembled is requisite. 

Article 11. Canada, acceding to this confederation, and joining in the 
measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to, all 
the advantages of this Union ; but no other colony shall be admitted into 
the same unless such admission be agreed to by nine states. 

Article 12. All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts 
contracted, by or under the authority of Congress, before the assembling 
of the United States, in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be 
deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment 
and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are 
hereby solemnly pledged. 

Article 13. Every state shall abide by the decision of the United 
States in Congress assembled, on all questions which, by this confedera- 
tion, are submitted to them. And the articles of this confederation shall 
be inviolably observed by every state, and the Union shall be perpetual ; 
nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, un- 
less such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and 
be afterward confirmed by the legislature of every state. 

And whereas it has pleased the great Governor of the world to incline 
the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to 
approve of and to authorize us to ratify the said articles of confederation! 
and perpetual Union : know ye, that we, the undersigned delegates, by 
virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these 
presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully 
and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said articles of con- 
federation and perpetual Union, and all and singular the matters and things 
therein contained ; and we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith 
of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determinations 
of the United States in Congress assembled, on all questions which, by the 
said confederation, are submitted to them ; and that the articles thereof 
shall be inviolably observed by the states we respectively represent ; and 
that, the Union be perpetual. 

29 



442 



APPENDIX. 



In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands, in Congress. 
Done at Philadelphia, in the state of Pennsylvania, the ninth day of July, 
in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, 
and in the third year of the independence of America. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
Josiah Bartlett, 
John Wentworth, jr. 

MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 
John Hancock, 
Samuel Adams, 
Elbridge Gerry, 
Francis Dana, 
James Lovell, 
Samuel Holten. 

RHODE ISLAND. 

William Ellert, 
Henry Marchant, 
John Collins. 

CONNECTICUT. 

Roger Sherman, 
Samuel Huntington, 
Oliver Wolcott, 
Titus Hosmer, 
Andrew Adams. 

NEW YORK. 
James Duane, 
Francis Lewis, 
William Duer, 
Gouverneur Morris. 

NEW JERSEY. 
John Witherspoon, 
Nath. Scudder. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

Robert Morris, 
Daniel Roberdeau, 



Jonathan Bayard Smith, 
William Clingan, 
Joseph Reed. 

DELAWARE. 

Thomas M'Kean, 
John Dickinson, 
Nicholas Van Dyke. 

MARYLAND. 

John Hanson, 
Daniel Carroll. 

VIRGINIA. 

Richard Henry Lee, 
John Banister, 
Thomas Adams, 
John Harvie, 
Francis Lightfoot Lee. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

John Penn, 

Constable Harnett, 
John Williams. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Henry Laurens, 
William Henry Drayton, 
John Matthews, 
Richard Hutson, 
Thomas Heyward, jr. 

GEORGIA. 

John Walton, 
Edward Telfair, 
Edward Langworthy. 



A FRAGMENT OF POLYBIUS. 443 

NOTE IX. PACE 354. 

A FRAGMENT OF POLYBIUS. 

[From his Treatise on the Athenian Government.] 

This was presented by Sir William Jones to Dr. Franklin at 
Paris, about the last of June, 1782. It teas no doubt drawn by 
him, and was supposed to be an indirect mode of sounding Dr. 
Franklin, as to terms of accommodatiom with Great Britain, 
short of an express and open acknowledgment of the independence 
of the United States. 

Athens had long been an object of universal admiration, and conse- 
quently of envy ; her navy was invincible, her commerce extensive ; 
Europe and Asia supplied her with wealth ; of her citizens, all were 
intrepid, many virtuous ; but some too much infected with principles 
unfavorable to freedom. Hence an oligarchy was, in a great 
measure, established ; crooked counsels were thought supreme 
wisdom ; and the Athenians, having lost their true relish for their 
own freedom, began to attack that of their colonies, and of the states 
which they had before protected ! Their arrogant claims of un- 
limited dominion had compelled the Chians, Coans, Rhodians, Les- 
bians, to join with nine other small communities in the social war, 
which they began with inconceivable ardor, and continued with 
industry surpassing all example, and almost surpassing belief. They 
were openly assisted by Mausolus, king of Caria, to whose metropo- 
lis the united islands had sent a philosopher named Eleutherion, 
eminent for the deepest knowledge of nature, the most solid judg- 
ment, most approved virtue, and most ardent zeal for the cause of 
general liberty. The war had been supported for three years with 
infinite exertions of valor on both sides, with deliberate firmness on 
the part of the allies, and with unabated violence on the part of the 
Athenians, who had nevertheless dispatched commissioners to 
Rhodes with intent to propose terms of accommodation ; but the 
states (perhaps too pertinaciously) refused to hear any proposal 
whatever, without a previous recognition of their total independence 
by the magistrates and people of Athens. It was not long after this 
that an Athenian, who had been a pupil of Isaeus together with 
Demosthenes, and began to be known in his country as a pleader of 
causes, was led by some affair of his clients to the capital of Caria. 
He was a man, unauthorized, unemployed, unconnected, indepen- 
dent in his circumstances as much as in his principles, admitting no 
governor under Providence but the laws, and no laws but those 
which justice and virtue had dictated, which wisdom approved, 
which his country had freely enacted. He had been known at 
Athens to the sage Eleutherion ; and their acquaintance being re- 
newed, he sometimes took occasion in their conversations to lament 
the increasing calamities of war, and to express his eager desire of 
making a general peace on such terms as would produce the greatest 
good from the greatest evil ; for " this," said he, " would be a work 



444 APPENDIX. 

not unworthy of the divine attributes, and if mortals could effect it, 
they would act like those beneficent beings whom Socrates believed 
to be the constant friends and attendants of our species." 

He added, " As to the united nations, I applaud, admire, and 
almost envy them ; I am even tempted to wish that I had been born 
a Chian or a Rhodian ; but let them be satisfied with the prize of 
virtue which they have already obtained. I will yield to none of 
your countrymen, my friend, in my love of liberty ; but she seems 
more lovely to my eyes, when she comes hand in hand with peace. 
From that union we can expect nothing but the highest happiness of 
which our nature is capable ; and it is an union which nothing now 
obstructs but a mere word. 

" Let the confederates be contented with the substance of that 
independence which they have asserted, and the word will necessarily 
follow. 

" Let them not hurt the natural, and perhaps not reprehensible, 
pride of Athens, nor demand any concession that may sink in the 
eyes of Greece, a nation to whom they are and must be united in 
language, in blood, in manners, in interest, in principles. Glory is 
to a nation what reputation is to an individual ; it is not an empty 
sound, but important and essential. It will be glorious in Athens to 
acknowledge her error in attempting to reduce the islands ; but an 
acknowledgment of her inability to reduce them (if she be unable) 
will be too public a confession of weakness, and her rank among the 
stales of Greece will instantly be lowered. 

" But whatever I might advise, if my advice had any chance of 
being taken, this I know, and positively pronounce, that while Athens 
is Athens, her proud but brave citizens will never expressly recog- 
nise the independence of the islands : their resources are no doubt 
exhaustible, but will not be exhausted in the lives of us and of our 
children. In this resolution all parties agree : I, who am of no party, 
dissent from them ; but what is a single voice in so vast a multitude ? 
Yet the independence of the United States was tacitly acknowledged 
by the very offer of terms, and it would result in silence from the 
natural operation of the treaty. An express acknowledgment of it 
is merely formal with respect to the allies ; but the prejudices of 
mankind have made it substantial with respect to Athens. 

" Let this obstacle be removed : it is slight, but fatal ; and whilst 
it lasts, thousands and ten thousands will perish. In war much 
will always depend upon blind chance, and a storm or sudden fall 
of snow may frustrate all your efforts for liberty ; but let commis- 
sioners from both sides meet, and the islanders, by not insisting on a 
preliminary recognition of independence, will ultimately establish it 
for ever. 

" But independence is not disunion. Chios, Cos, Lesbos, Rhodes, 
are united, but independent on each other : they are connected by a 
common tie, but have different forms and different constitutions. 
They are gems of various colors and various properties, strung in 
one bracelet. Such an union can only be made between states, 
which, how widely soever they differ in form, agree in one common 



A FRAGMENT OF POLYBIUS. 445 

property, freedom. Republics may form alliances, but not a federal 
union, with arbitrary monarchies. Were Athens governed by the 
will of a monarch, she could never be co-ordinate with the free 
islands ; for such an union would not be dissimilarity but dissonance ; 
but she is and shall be ruled by laws alone, that is, by the will of 
the people, which is the only law. Her Arch on, even when he was 
perpetual, had no essential properties of monarchy. The constitu- 
tion of Athens, if we must define it, was then a republic with a 
perpetual administrator of its laws. Between Athens, therefore, and 
the freest states in the world, a union may naturally be formed. 

" There is a natural union between her and the islands which the 
gods have made, and which the powers of hell cannot dissolve. 
Men speaking the same idiom, educated in the same manner, 
perhaps in the same place, professing the same principles, sprung 
from the same ancestors, in no very remote degree ; and related to 
each other in a thousand modes of consanguinity, affinity, and 
friendship, such men (whatever they may say through a temporary 
resentment) can never in their hearts consider one another as 
aliens. 

" Let them meet then with fraternal and pacific dispositions, and 
let this be the general ground-work and plan of the treaty. 

1. " The Carians shall be included in the pacification, and have 
such advantages as will induce them to consent to the treaty rather 
than continue a hazardous war. 

2. " The archon, senate, and magistrates of Athens shall make a 
complete recognition of rights of all the Athenian citizens of all 
orders whatever, and all former laws for that purpose shall be com- 
bined in one. There shall not be one slave in Attica. 

Note. " [By making this a preliminary, the islanders will show 
their affection for the people of Athens : their friendship will be 
cemented and fixed on a solid basis ; and the greatest good will be 
extracted, as I at first proposed, from the greatest evil.] 

3. " There shall be a perfect co-ordination between Athens and 
the thirteen united islands, they considering her not as a parent, 
whom they must obey, but as an elder sister, whom they cannot help 
loving, and to whom they shall give pre-eminence of honor and co- 
equality of power. 

4. " The new constitutions of the confederate islands shall 
remain. 

5. " On every occasion requiring acts for the general good, there 
shall be an assembly of deputies from the senate of Athens and the 
congress of the islands, who shall fairly adjust the whole business, 
and settle the ratio of the contributions on both sides. This com- 
mittee shall consist of fifty islanders and fifty Athenians, or of a 
smaller number chosen by them. 

6. " If it be thought necessary and found convenient, a propor- 
tionable number of Athenian citizens shall have seats, and power of 
debating and voting on questions of common concern, in the great 
assembly of the islands, and a proportionable number of islanders 
shall sit with the like power in the assembly at Athens 



446 APPENDIX. 

Note. " [This reciprocal representation will cement the union. 

7. " There shall be no obligation to make war but for the common 
interest. 

8. " Commerce shall flow in a free course for the general advan- 
tage of the united powers. 

0. " An universal unlimited amnesty shall be proclaimed in every 
part of Greece and Asia. 

•' This," said the Athenian, " is the rough sketch of a treaty 
founded on virtue and liberty. The idea of it still fills and expands 
my soul ; and if it cannot be realized, T shall not think it less glorious, 
but shall only grieve more and more at the perverseness of mankind. 
May the eternal Being, whom the wise and the virtuous adore, and 
whose attribute it is to convert into good that evil which his un- 
searchable wisdom permits, inspire all ranks of men to promote either 
this or a similar plan ! If this be impracticable, miserable human 
nature ! But I am fully confident that if * * * more at large * * 

happiness of all." 

###### 

No more is extant of this interesting piece, upon which the com- 
mentary of the sage Polybius would have been particularly valuable 
in these times. 



NOTE IX. PAGE 355. 

DEFINITIVE TREATY OF PEACE. 

The definitive treaty of peace and friendship between his Britannic 
majesty and the United States of America, signed at Paris, the 3d 
day of September, 1783. 

In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity. 
It having pleased the Divine Providence to dispose the hearts of 
the most serene and most potent prince, George the Third, by the 
grace of God King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender 
of the Faith, duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg, arch-treasurer and 
prince elector of the holy Roman empire, &c, and of the United 
States of America, to forget all past misunderstandings and differ- 
ences that have unhappily interrupted the good correspondence and 
friendship which they mutually wish to restore, and to establish such 
a beneficial and satisfactory intercourse between the two countries, 
upon the ground of reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience, 
as may promote and secure to both perpetual peace and harmony ; 
and having for this desirable end already laid the foundation of 
peace and reconciliation, by the provisional articles signed at Paris, 
on the 30th of November, 1782, by the commissioners empowered 
on each part ; which articles were agreed to be inserted in, and to 
constitute the treaty of peace proposed to be concluded between the 
crown of Great Britain and the said United States, but which treaty 
was not to be concluded until terms of peace should be agreed upon 
between Great Britain and France, and his Britannic majesty should 



DEFINITIVE TREATY OF PEACE. 447 

be ready to conclude such treaty accordingly ; and the treaty be- 
tween Great Britain and France having since been concluded, his 
Britannic majesty and the United States of America, in order to 
carry into full effect the provisional articles above mentioned, accord- 
ing to the tenor thereof, have constituted and appointed ; that is to 
say, his Britannic majesty on his part, David Hartley, Esq., member 
of the parliament of Great Britain ; and the said United States on 
their part, John Adams, Esq., late a Commissioner of the United 
States of America at the court of Versailles, late delegate in Congress 
from the State of Massachusetts, and chief justice of the said State, 
and minister plenipotentiary of the said United States to their high 
mightinesses the States General of the United Netherlands ; Benja- 
min Franklin, Esq., late delegate in Congress from the State of 
Pennsylvania, president of the convention of the said Slate, and 
minister plenipotentiary from the United States of America at the 
court of Versailles ; and John Jay, Esq., late President of Congress, 
and chief justice of the State of New York, and minister pleni 
potentiary from the said United States at the court of Madrid ; to be 
the plenipotentiaries for the concluding and signing the present defi- 
nitive treaty, who, after having reciprocally communicated their 
respective full powers, have agreed upon and confirmed the follow 
ing articles. 

article 1. 

His Britannic majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz. 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
and Georgia, to be free, sovereign, and independent States ; that he 
treats with them as such, and for himself, his heirs, and successors, 
relinquishes all claim to the government, proprietary, and territorial 
rights of the same, and every part thereof. 

ARTICLE II. 

And that all disputes which might arise in future on the subject 
of the boundaries of the said United States may be prevented, it is 
hereby agreed and declared, that the following are and shall be their 
boundaries, viz. From the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, viz. that 
angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of 
St. Croix river to the high lands, along the said high lands which 
divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Law- 
rence, from those which fall into the Atlantic ocean, to the north- 
westernmost head of Connecticut river ; thence drawn along the 
middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude ; from 
thence by a line due west on said latitude, until it strikes the river 
Jroquois or Cataraquy ; thence along the middle of said river into 
Lake Ontario ; through the middle of said lake, until it strikes the 
communication by water between that lake and Lake Eric ; thence 
along the middle of the said communication into Lake Eric, through 
the middle of said lake, until it arrives at the water communication 



448 APPENDIX. 

between that lake and Lake Huron ; thence through the middle of 
said lake, to the water communication between that lake and Lake 
Superior ; thence through Lake Superior northward to the isles 
Royal and Philipeaux, to the Long Lake ; thence through the middle 
of said Long Lake, and the water communication between it and the 
Lake of the Woods, to the said Lake of the Woods ; thence through 
the said lake to the most north-westernmost point thereof, and from 
thence a due west course to the river Mississippi ; thence by a line 
to be drawn along the middle of the said river Mississippi, until it 
shall intersect the northernmost part of the thirty-first degree of north 
latitude ; south, by a line to be drawn due east from the determina- 
tion of the line last mentioned, in the latitude of thirty-one degrees 
north of the equator, to the middle of the river Apalachicola or Cata- 
houche ; thence along the middle thereof, to its junction with the 
Flint river ; thence straight to the head of St. Mary's river, to the 
Atlantic ocean ; east, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the 
river St. Croix, from its mouth in the bay of Fundy to its source, 
and from its source directly north to the aforesaid high lands, which 
divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic ocean from those which 
fall into the river St. Lawrence, comprehending all islands within 
twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States, and 
lying between lines to be drawn due east from the points where the 
aforesaid boundaries between Nova Scotia on the one part and East 
Florida on the other, shall respectively touch the bay of Fundy and 
the Atlantic ocean, excepting such islands as now are or heretofore 
have been within the limits of the said province of Nova Scotia. 

ARTICLE III. 

It is agreed that the people of the United States shall continue to 
enjoy unmolested, the right to take fish of every kind on the Great 
Bank, and on all the other banks of Newfoundland ; also in the gulf 
of St. Lawrence, and at all other places in the sea where the inhabit- 
ants of both countries used at any time heretofore to fish ; and also 
that the inhabitants of the United States shall have liberty to take fish 
of every kind on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British 
fishermen shall use (but not to dry or cure the same on that island), 
and also on the coasts, bays, and creeks, of all other of his Britannic 
majesty's dominions in America ; and that the American fishermen 
shall have liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, 
harbors, and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, 
so long as the same shall remain unsettled ; but so soon as the same 
shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or 
cure fish at such settlement, without a previous agreement for that 
purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors, or possessors of the ground. 

ARTICLE IV. 

It is agreed, that the creditors on either side shall meet with no 
lawful impediment to the recovery of the full value in sterling money 
of all bona fide debts herefotore contracted. 



DEFINITIVE TREATY OF PEACE. 449 

ARTICLE V. 

It is agreed that Congress shall earnestly recommend it to the 
legislatures of the respective States, to provide for the restitution of 
all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated, be- 
longing to real British subjects ; and also of the estates, rights, and 
properties, of persons resident in districts in the possession of his 
majesty's arms, and who have not borne arms against the said 
United States ; and that persons of any other description shall have 
free liberty to go to any part or parts of any of the thirteen United 
States, and therein to remain twelve months unmolested in their en- 
deavors to obtain the restitution of such of their estates, rights, and 
properties, as may have been confiscated ; and that Congress shall 
also earnestly recommend to the several States a reconsideration and 
revision of all acts or laws regarding the premises, so as to render the 
said laws or acts perfectly consistent, not only with justice and 
equity, but with that spirit of conciliation which, on the return of the 
blessings of peace, should invariably prevail ; and that Congress 
shall also earnestly recommend to the several States, that the estates, 
rights, and properties of such last mentioned persons, shall be restor- 
ed to them, they refunding to any persons who may be now in pos- 
session, the bond fide price (where any has been given), which such 
persons may have paid on purchasing any of the said lands, rights, or 
properties, since the confiscation. 

And it is agreed,, that all persons who have any interest in confis- 
cated lands, either by debts, marriage settlements, or otherwise, shall 
meet with no lawful impediment in the prosecution of their just 
rights. 

ARTICLE VI. 

That there shall be no future confiscations made, nor any prosecu- 
tions commenced against any person or persons, for or by reason of 
the part which he or they may have taken in the present war ; and 
that no person shall on that account suffer any future loss or 
damage, either in his person, liberty, or property ; and that those 
who may be in confinement on such charges, at the time of the rati- 
fication of the treaty in America, shall be immediately set at liberty, 
and the prosecutions so commenced be discontinued. 

ARTICLE VII. 

There shall be a firm and perpetual peace between his Britannic 
majesty and the said United States, and between the subjects of the 
one and the citizens of the other ; wherefore all hostilities, both by 
sea and land, shall from henceforth cease ; all prisoners, on both 
sides, shall be set at liberty ; and his Britannic majesty shall, with all 
convenient speed, and without causing any destruction, or carrying 
away any negroes or other property of the American inhabitants, 
withdraw all his armies, garrisons, and fleets, from the said United 
States, and from every post, place, and harbor within the same, 
leaving in all fortifications the American artillery that may be 
therein ; and shall also order and cause all archives, records, deeds, 



450 APPENDIX. 

and papers belonging to any of the said States, or their citizens, 
which in the course of the war may have fallen into the hands of his 
officers, to be forthwith restored, and delivered to the proper States 
and persons to whom they belong. 

ARTICLE VIII. 

The navigation of the river Mississippi, from its source to the 
ocean, shall for ever remain free and open to the subjects of Great 
Britain and the citizens of the United States. 

ARTICLE IX. 

In case it should so happen, that any place or territory, belonging 
to Great Britain or to the United States, should have been conquered 
by the arms of either from the other, before the arrival of the said 
provincial articles in America, it is agreed that the same shall be re- 
stored without difficulty and without requiring any compensation. 

ARTICLE X. 

The solemn ratifications of the present treaty, expedited in good 
and due form, shall be exchanged between the contracting parties in 
the space of six months, or sooner, if possible, to be computed from 
the day of the signature of the present treaty. 

In witness whereof, we, the undersigned, their ministers plenipo- 
tentiary, have in their name, and in virtue of our full powers, signed 
with our hands the present definitive treaty, and caused the seals of 
our arms to be affixed thereto. 

Done at Paris, this third day of September, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three. 

" DAVID HARTLEY, (l. s.) 
JOHN ADAMS, (l. s.) 
B. FRANKLIN, (l. s.) 
JOHN JAY. (l. s.) 



NOTE XI. PAGE 357. 

NEWBURGH ADDRESS, AND WASHINGTON'S SPEECH 

TO THE OFFICERS OF THE ARMY. 

Gentlemen : — A fellow-soldier, whose interests and affections bind 
him strongly to you, whose past sufferings have been as great, and 
whose future fortunes may be as desperate as yours, would beg 
leave to address you. Age has its claims, and rank is not without 
its pretensions to advise ; but, though unsupported by both, he 
flatters himself that the plain language of sincerity and experience 
will neither be unheard nor unregarded. 

Like many of you, he loved private life, and left it with regret. 



WASHINGTON'S NEWBURGH ADDRESS. 451 

He left it, determined to retire from the field with the necessity that 
called him to it, and not till then — not till the enemies of his country, 
the slaves of power, and the hirelings of injustice, were compelled to 
abandon their schemes, and acknowledge America as terrible in 
arms as she had been humble in remonstrance. With this object in 
view, he has long shared in your toils, and mingled in your dangers. 
He has felt the cold hand of poverty without a murmur, and has 
seen the insolence of wealth without a sigh. But, too much under 
the direction of his wishes, and sometimes weak enough to mistake 
desire for opinion, he has till lately, very lately, believed in the 
justice of his country. He hoped that, as the clouds of adversity 
scattered, and as the sunshine of peace and better fortune broke in 
upon us, the coldness and severity of government would relax, and 
that more than justice, that gratitude, would blaze forth upon those 
hands which had upheld her, in the darkest stages of her passage, 
from impending servitude to acknowledged independence. But 
faith has its limits as well as temper, and there are points beyond 
which neither can be stretched without sinking into cowardice or 
plunging into credulity. This, my friends, I conceive to be your 
situation. Hurried to the very verge of both, another step would 
ruin you for ever. To be tame and unprovoked when injuries press 
hard upon you, is more than weakness ; but to look up for kinder 
usage, without one manly effort of your own, would fix your 
character, and show the world how richly you deserve those chains 
you broke.- To guard against this evil, let us take a review of the 
ground upon which we now stand, and thence carry our thoughts 
forward for a moment into the unexplored field of expedient. After 
a pursuit of seven long years, the object for which we set out is at 
length brought within our reach. Yes, my friends, that suffering 
courage of yours was active once — it has conducted the United 
States of America through a doubtful and a bloody war ; it has 
placed her in the chair of independence, and peace returns again — to 
bless whom ? A country willing to redress your wrongs, cherish 
your worth, and reward your services ? A country courting your 
return to private life with tears of gratitude and smiles of admiration 
— longing to divide with you the independency which your gallantry 
has given, and those riches which your wounds have preserved ? Is 
this the case ? or is it rather a country that tramples upon your 
rights, disdains your cries, and insults your distresses ? Have you 
not more than once suggested your wishes, and made known your 
wants, to Congress — wants and wishes which gratitude and policy 
should have anticipated rather than evaded ? And have you not 
lately, in the meek language of entreating memorials, begged from 
their justice what you could no longer expect from their favor ? How 
have you been answered ? Let the letter which you are called to 
consider to-morrow reply. 

If this then be your treatment while the swords you wear are 
necessary for the defence of America, what have you to expect from 
peace, when your voice shall sink, and your strength dissipate, by 
division — when those very swords, the instruments and companions 



452 APPENDIX. 

of your glory, shall be taken from your sides, and no remaining mark 
of military distinction left but your wants, infirmities, and scars ? 
Can you then consent to be the only sufferers by this revolution ; and, 
retiring from the field, grow old in poverty, wretchedness, and con- 
tempt ? Can you consent to wade through the vile mire of depend- 
ency, and owe the miserable remnant of that life to charity, which 
has hitherto been spent in honor ? If you can, go, and carry with 
you the jest of tories and the scorn of whigs ; the ridicule, and, what 
is worse, the pity, of the world ! Go, starve, and be forgotten ! But, 
if your spirit should revolt at this — if you have sense enough to dis- 
cover, and spirit enough to oppose tyranny, under whatever garb it 
may assume, whether it be the plain coat of republicanism or the 
splendid robe of royalty — if you have yet learned to discriminate be- 
tween a people and a cause, between men and principles — awake, 
attend to your situation, and redress yourselves ! If the present 
moment be lost, every future effort is in vain, and your threats then 
will be as empty as your entreaties now. 

I would advise you, therefore, to come to some final opinion upon 
what you can bear, and what you will suffer. If your determination 
be in any proportion to your wrongs, carry your appeal from the 
justice, to the fears, of government. Change the milk-and-water 
style of your last memorial ; assume a bolder tone, decent, but 
lively, spirited, and determined ; and suspect the man who would advise 
to more moderation and longer forbearance. Let two or three men, 
who can feel as well as write, be appointed to draw up your last re- 
monstrance ; for I would no longer give it the suing, soft, unsuccess- 
ful epithet of memorial. Let it be represented, in language that will 
neither dishonor you by its rudeness nor betray you by its fears, 
what has been promised by Congress, and what has been performed ; 
how long and how patiently you have suffered ; how little you have 
asked, and how much of that little has been denied. Tell them that 
though you were the first, and would wish to be the last, to encoun- 
ter danger, though despair itself can never drive you into dishonor, 
it may drive you from the field ; that the wound, often irritated, 
and never healed, may at length become incurable ; and that the 
slightest mark of malignity from Congress, now, must operate like 
the grave, and part you for ever. That, in any political event, the 
army has its alternative ; if peace, that nothing shall separate you 
from your arms but death ; if war, that, courting the auspices and in- 
viting the directions of your illustrious leader, you will retire to some 
unsettled country, smile in your turn, and " mock when their fear 
cometh on." But let it represent also, that should they comply with 
the request of your late memorial, it would make you more happy, 
and them more respectable. That while war should continue, you 
would follow their standard into the field ; and when it came to an 
end, you would withdraw into the shade of private life, and give the 
world another subject of wonder and applause — an army victorious 
over its enemies, victorious over itself. 



GENERAL WASHINGTON'S SPEECH AT THE MEETING OF OFFICERS 

Gentlemen : — By an anonymous summons an attempt has been 
made to convene you together ; how inconsistent with the rules of 
propriety, how unmilitary, and how subversive of all order and dis- 
cipline, let the good sense of the army decide. In the moment of 
this summons, another anonymous production was sent into circula- 
tion, addressed more to the feelings and passions than to the judg- 
ment of the army. The author of the piece is entitled to much 
credit for the goodness of his pen ; and I could wish he had as much 
credit for the rectitude of his heart ; for, as men see through differ- 
ent optics, and are induced by the reflecting faculties of the mind to 
use different means to attain the same end, the author of the address 
should have had more charity than to mark for suspicion the man 
who should recommend moderation and longer forbearance ; or, in 
other words, who should not think as he thinks, and act as he 
advises. 

But he had another plan in view, in which candor and liberality 
of sentiment, regard to justice, and love of country, have no part ; 
and he was right to insinuate the darkest suspicion to effect the 
blackest design. That the address was drawn with great art, and is 
designed to answer the most insidious purposes ; that it is calculated 
to impress the mind with an idea of premeditated injustice in the 
sovereign power of the United States, and rouse all the resentments 
which must unavoidably flow from such a belief; that the secret 
mover of this scheme, whoever he may be, intended to take advan- 
tage of the passions while they were warmed by the recollection of 
past distresses, without giving time for cool, deliberate thinking, and 
that composure of mind which is so necessary to give dignity and 
stability to measures, is rendered too obvious, by the mode of con- 
ducting the business, to need other proofs than a reference to the 
proceedings. 

Thus much, gentlemen, I have thought it incumbent on me to 
observe to you, to show upon what principles I opposed the irregular 
and hasty meeting which was proposed to have been held on Tuesday 
last, and not because I wanted a disposition to give you every 
opportunity, consistent with your own honor and the dignity of the 
army, to make known your grievances. If my conduct, therefore, 
has not evinced to you that I have been a faithful friend to the 
army, my declaration of it at this time would be equally unavailing 
and improper. But, as I was among the first who embarked in the 
cause of our common country ; as I have never left your side one 
moment, but when called from you on public duty ; as I have been 
the constant companion and witness of your distresses, and not 
among the last to feel and acknowledge your merits ; as I have ever 
considered my own military reputation as inseparably connected 
with that of the army ; as my heart has ever expanded with joy when 
I have heard its praises, and my indignation has arisen when the 



454 APPENDIX. 

mouth of detraction has been opened against it ; it can scarcely be 
supposed, at this stage of the war, that I am indifferent to its in- 
terests. But how are they to be promoted? The way is plain, 
says the anonymous addresser. If war continues, remove into the 
unsettled country ; there establish yourselves, and leave an ungrate- 
ful country to defend itself. But who are they to defend ? Our 
wives, our children, our farms, and other property which we leave 
behind us ? or, in this state of hostile preparation, are we to take the 
first two (the latter cannot be removed), to perish in the wilderness, 
with hunger, cold, and nakedness ? 

If peace takes place, never sheathe your sword, says he, until you 
have obtained full and ample justice. This dreadful alternative of 
either deserting our country in the extremest hour of her distress, 01 
turning our arms against it, which is the apparent object, unless 
Congress can be compelled into instant compliance, has something- 
so shocking in it, that humanity revolts at the idea. My God ! what 
can this writer have in view by recommending such measures ? Can 
he be a friend to the army ? Can he be a friend to this country ? 
Rather, is he not an insidious foe ; some emissary, perhaps, from 
New York, plotting the ruin of both, by sowing the seeds of discord 
and separation between the civil and military powers of the conti- 
nent? And what a compliment does he pay to our understandings, 
when he recommends measures, in either alternative, impracticable 
in their nature 1 

But here, gentlemen, I will drop the curtain, because it would be 
as imprudent in me to assign my reasons for this opinion, as it 
would be insulting to your conception to suppose you stood in need 
of them. A moment's reflection will convince every dispassionate 
mind of the physical impossibility of carrying either proposal into 
execution. There might, gentlemen, be an impropriety in my 
taking notice, in this address to you, of an anonymous production ; 
but the manner in which that performance has been introduced to 
the army, the effect it was intended to have, together with some 
other circumstances, will amply justify my observations on the ten- 
dency of that writing. 

With respect to the advice given by the author, to suspect the 
man who should recommend moderate measures, I. spurn it, as 
every man, who regards that liberty and reveres that justice for which 
we contend, undoubtedly must ; for, if men are to be precluded 
from offering their sentiments on a matter which may involve the 
most serious and alarming consequences that can invite the conside- 
ration of mankind, reason is of no use to us. The freedom of 
speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent we may be led like 
sheep to the slaughter. I cannot in justice to my own belief, and 
what I have great reason to conceive is the intention of Congress, 
conclude this address, without giving it as my decided opinion, that 
that honorable body entertains exalted sentiments of the services of 
the army, and, from a full conviction of its merits and sufferings, 
will do it complete justice. That their endeavors to discover and 
establish funds for this purpose have been unwearied, and will not 



WASHINGTON'S SPEECH TO HIS OFFICERS. 455 

cease till they have succeeded, I have not a doubt ; but, like all 
other large bodies, where there is a variety of different interests to 
reconcile, their determinations are slow. Why, then, should we dis- 
trust them ; and, in consequence of that distrust, adopt measures 
which may cast a shade over that glory which has been so justly ac- 
quired, and tarnish the reputation of an army which is celebrated 
through all Europe for its fortitude and patriotism ? And for what is 
this done ? To bring the object we seek nearer ? No ; most cer- 
tainly, in my opinion, it will cast it at a greater distance. For my- 
self (and I take no merit for giving the assurance, being induced to it 
from principles of gratitude, veracity, and justice, and a grateful 
sense of the confidence you have ever placed in me), a recollection 
of the cheerful assistance and prompt obedience I have experienced 
from you under every vicissitude of fortune, and the sincere affection 
I feel for an army I have so long had the honor to command, will 
oblige me to declare, in this public and solemn manner, that in the 
attainment of complete justice for all your toils and dangers, and in 
the gratification of every wish, so far as may be done consistently 
with the great duty I owe to my country, and those powers we arc 
bound to respect, you may freely command my services to the utmost 
extent of my abilities. 

While I give you these assurances, and pledge myself in the most 
unequivocal manner to exert whatever abilities I am possessed of in 
your favor, let me entreat you, gentlemen, on your part, not to take 
any measures which, viewed in the calm light of reason, will lessen 
the dignity, and sully the glory, you have hitherto maintained. Let 
me request you to rely on the plighted faith of your country, and 
place a full confidence in the purity of the intentions of Congress, 
that, previous to your dissolution as an army, they will cause all 
your accounts to be fairly liquidated, as directed in the resolutions 
which were published to you two days ago ; and that they will 
adopt the most effectual measures in their power to render ample 
justice to you for your faithful and meritorious services. And let 
me conjure you, in the name of our common country, as you value 
your own sacred honor, as you respect the rights of humanity, and as 
you regard the military and national character of America, to express 
your utmost horror and detestation of the man who wishes, under any 
specious pretences, to overturn the liberties of our country ; and who 
wickedly attempts to open the flood-gates of civil discord, and deluge 
our rising empire in blood. 

By thus determining, and thus acting, you will pursue the plain 
and direct road to the attainment of your wishes ; you will defeat the 
insidious designs of our enemies, who are compelled to resort from 
open force to secret artifice ; you will give one more distinguished 
proof of unexampled patriotism and patient virtue rising superior to 
the pressure of the most complicated sufferings ; and you will, by the 
dignity of your conduct, afford occasion for posterity to say, when 
speaking of the glorious example you have exhibited to mankind : 
" Had this day been wanting, the world had never seen the last stage 
of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining." 



456 APPENDIX. 

NOTE XII. PAGE. 358. 

A CIRCULAR LETTER 

From his Excellency George Washington, Commander-in-Chief 
of the Armies of the United States of America, to the Governors 
of the several States. 

Head-Quarters, Newburg, June 18, 1783. 

Sir, — The great object for which I had the honor to hold an 
appointment in the service of my country being accomplished, I am 
now preparing to resign it into the hands of Congress, and return to 
that domestic retirement, which it is well known I left with the 
greatest reluctance ; a retirement for which I have never ceased to 
sigh through a long and painful absence, in which (remote from the 
noise and trouble of the world) I meditate to pass the remainder of 
life, in a state of undisturbed repose : but before I carry this resolu- 
tion into effect, I think it a duty incumbent on me to make this my 
last official communication, to congratulate you on the glorious 
events which Heaven has been pleased to produce in our favor, to 
offer my sentiments respecting some important subjects, which 
appear to me to be intimately connected with the tranquillity of the 
United States, to take my leave of your Excellency as a public 
character, and to give my final blessing to that country in whose 
service I have spent the prime of my life ; for whose sake I have 
consumed so many anxious days and watchful nights, and whose 
happiness, being extremely dear to me, will always constitute no in- 
considerable part of my own. 

Impressed with the liveliest sensibility on this pleasing occasion, 
I will claim the indulgence of dilating the more copiously on the 
subject of our mutual felicitation. When we consider the magnitude 
of the prize we contended for, the doubtful nature of the contest, 
and the favorable manner in which it has terminated ; we shall find 
the greatest possible reason for gratitude and rejoicing ; this is a 
theme that will afford infinite delight to every benevolent and liberal 
mind, whether the event in contemplation be considered as a source 
of present enjoyment, or the parent of future happiness ; and we 
shall have equal occasion to felicitate ourselves on the lot which 
Providence has assigned us, whether we view it in a natural, a politi- 
cal, or moral point of view. 

The citizens of America, placed in the most enviable condition, as 
the sole lords and proprietors of a vast tract of continent, comprehend- 
ing all the various soils and climates of the world, and abounding 
with all the necessaries and conveniences of life, are now, by the late 
satisfactory pacification, acknowledged to be possessed of absolute 
freedom and independency ; they are from this period to be con- 
sidered as the actors on a most conspicuous theatre, which seems to 
be peculiarly designed by Providence for the display of human great- 
ness and felicity : here they are not only surrounded with everything 
that can contribute to the completion of private and domestic enjoy- 



WASHINGTON'S CIRCULAR LETTER. 457 

inent, but Heaven has crowned all its other blessings by giving a 
surer opportunity for political happiness than any other nation has 
ever been favored with. Nothing can illustrate these observations 
more forcibly than the recollection of the happy conjuncture of times 
and circumstances under which our Republic assumed its rank 
among the nations. The foundation of our empire has not been laid 
in a gloomy age of ignorance and superstition, but at an epocha 
when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly 
defined, than at any former period : researches of the human mind 
after social happiness have been carried to a great extent : the trea- 
sures of knowledge acquired by the labors of philosophers, sages, 
and legislators, through a long succession of years, are laid open for 
use, and their collected wisdom may be happily applied in the 
establishment of our forms of government : the free cultivation of 
letters, the unbounded extension of commerce, the progressive refine- 
ment of manners, the growing liberality of sentiment, and above all, 
the pure and benign light of revelation, have had a meliorating in- 
fluence on mankind, and increased the blessings of society. At this 
auspicious period the United States came into existence as a nation, 
and if their citizens should not be completely free and happy, the 
fault will be entirely their own. 

Such is our situation, and such are our prospects ; but notwith- 
standing the cup of blessing is thus reached out to us — notwithstand- 
ing happiness is ours, if we have a disposition to seize the occasion 
and make it our own ; yet it appears to me there is an option still 
left to the United States of America, whether they will be respect- 
able and prosperous, or contemptible and miserable as a nation. 
This is the time of their political probation ; this is the moment 
when the eyes of the whole world are turned upon them ; this is the 
time to establish or ruin their national character for ever ; this is the 
favorable moment to give such a tone to the Federal Government as 
will enable it to answer the ends of its institution ; or this may be 
the ill fated moment for relaxing the powers of the Union, annihilat- 
ing the cement of the Confederation, and exposing us to become the 
sport of European politics, which may play one State against 
another, to prevent their growing importance, and to serve their own 
interested purposes. For, according to the system of policy the 
States shall adopt at this moment, they will stand or fall ; and by 
their confirmation or lapse, it is yet to be decided whether the revo- 
lution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse ; a 
blessing or a curse not to the present age alone, for with our fate will 
the destiny of unborn millions be involved. 

With this conviction of the importance of the present crisis, 
silence in me would be a crime. I will therefore speak to your 
Excellency the language of freedom and sincerity, without disguise. 
J am aware, however, those who differ from me in political senti- 
ments may perhaps remark, 1 am stepping out of the proper line of 
my duty ; and they may possibly ascribe to arrogance or ostentation, 
what I know is alone the result of the purest intention ; but the rec- 
titude of my own heart, which disdains *uch unworthy motives — the 

30 



458 APPENDIX. 

part I have hitherto acted in life — the determination I have formed 
of not taking any share in public business hereafter — the ardent de- 
sire I feel and shall continue to manifest, of quietly enjoying in 
private life, after all the toils of war, the benefits of a wise and 
liberal government, will, I flatter myself, sooner or later convince 
my countrymen, that I could have no sinister views in delivering, 
with so little reserve, the opinions contained in this address. 

There are four things which I humbly conceive are essential to the 
well-being, 1 may even venture to say, to the existence of the United 
States, as an independent power. 

1st. An indissoluble union of the States under one federal head. 

2dly. A sacred regard to public justice. 

3dly. The adoption of a proper peace establishment. And, 

4thly. The prevalence of that pacific and friendly disposition 
among the people of the United States, which will induce them to 
forget their local prejudices and politics, to make those mutual con- 
cessions which are requisite to the general prosperity, and in some 
instances to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the 
community. 

These are the pillars on which the glorious fabric of our inde- 
pendence and national character must be supported. Liberty is the 
basis, and whoever would dare to sap the foundation, or overturn the 
structure, under whatever specious pretext he may attempt it, will 
merit the bitterest execration and the severest punishment which can 
be inflicted by his injured country. 

On the three first ai-ticles I will make a few observations, leaving 
the last to the good sense and serious consideration of those imme- 
diately concerned. 

Under the first head, although it may not be necessary or proper 
for me in this place to enter into a particular disquisition of the prin- 
ciples of the Union, and to take up the great question which has 
been frequently agitated, whether it be expedient and requisite for 
the States to delegate a large proportion of power to Congress or 
not ; yet it will be a part of my duty, and that of every true patriot, 
to assert without reserve, and to insist upon the following positions. 
That unless the States will suffer Congress to exercise those prero- 
gatives they are undoubtedly invested with by the constitution, every- 
thing must very rapidly tend to anarchy and confusion. That it is 
indispensable to the happiness of the individual States that there 
should be lodged somewhere a supreme power, to regulate and 
govern the general concerns of the confederated republic, without 
which the union cannot be of long duration. There must be a faith- 
ful and pointed compliance on the part of every State with the late 
proposals and demands of Congress, or the most fatal consequences 
will ensue. That whatever measures have a tendency to dissolve 
the union, or contribute to violate or lessen the sovereign authority, 
ought to be considered as hostile to the liberty and independence of 
America, and the authors of them treated accordingly. And lastly, 
that unless we can be enabled by the concurrence of the States to 
participate in the fruits of the revolution, and enjoy the essential 



WASHINGTON'S CIRCULAR LETTER. 459 

benefits of civil society, under a form of government so free and 
uncorrupted, so happily guarded against the danger of oppression, as 
has been devised and adopted by the articles of confederation, it will 
be the subject of regret that so much blood and treasure have been 
lavished for no purpose ; that so many sufferings have been counter 
acted without a compensation, and that so many sacrifices have been 
made in vain. Many other considerations might here be adduced to 
prove, that without an entire conformity to the spirit of the Union, 
we cannot exist as an independent power. It will be sufficient for 
my purpose to mention but one or two, which seem to me of the 
greatest importance. It is only in our united character, as an empire, 
that our independence is acknowledged, that our power can be re- 
garded, or our credit supported among foreign nations. The treaties 
of the European powers with the United States of America will 
have no validity on the dissolution of the Union. We shall be left 
nearly in a state of nature, or we may find by our own unhappy ex- 
perience, that there is a natural and necessary progression from the 
extreme of anarchy to the extreme of tyranny ; and that arbitrary 
power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to 
licentiousness. 

As to the second article, which respects the performance of public 
justice, Congress have, in their late address to the United States, 
almost exhausted the subject ; they have explained their ideas so 
fully, and have enforced the obligations the States are under to 
render complete justice to all the public creditors, with so mucli 
dignity and energy, that in my opinion no real friend to the honor and 
independency of America can hesitate a single moment respecting 
the propriety of complying with the just and honorable measures 
proposed. If their arguments do not produce conviction, I know of 
nothing that will have a greater influence, especially when we reflect 
that the system referred to, being the result of the collected wisdom 
of the continent, must be esteemed, if not perfect, certainly the least 
objectionable of any that could be devised ; and that if it should not 
be carried into immediate execution, a national bankruptcy, with all its 
deplorable consequences, will take place before any different plan 
can possibly be proposed or adopted ; so pressing are the preseni 
circumstances, and such the alternative now offered to the States. 

The ability of the country to discharge the debts which have been 
incurred in its defence, is not to be doubted. An inclination, I flatter 
myself, will not be wanting ; the path of our duty is plain before us ; 
honesty will be found, on every experiment, to be the best and only 
true policy. Let us then as a nation be just ; let us fulfil the public 
contracts which Congress had undoubtedly a right to make for the 
purpose of carrying on the war, with the same good faith we suppose 
ourselves bound to perform our private engagements. In the mean- 
time, let an attention to the cheerful performance of their proper 
business, as individuals and as members of society, be earnestly 
inculcated on the citizens of America ; then will they strengthen the 
bands of government, and be happy under its protection. Every one 



460 APPENDIX. 

will reap the fruit of his labors ; every one will enjoy his own ac 
quisitions, without molestation and without danger. 

In this state of absolute freedom and perfect security, who will 
grudge to yield a very little of his property to support the common 
interests of society, and ensure the protection of government ? Who 
does not remember the frequent declarations at the commencement 
cf the war, that we should be completely satisfied, if at the expense 
of one half, we could defend the remainder of our possessions ? 
Where is the man to be found, who wishes to remain indebted for 
the defence of his own person and property to the exertions, the 
bravery, and the blood of others, without making one generous effort 
to pay the debt of honor and of gratitude ? In what part of the con- 
tinent shall we find any man, or body of men, w r ho would not blush 
to stand up, and propose measures purposely calculated to rob the 
soldier of his stipend, and the public creditor of his due ? And were 
it possible that such a flagrant instance of injustice could ever 
happen, would it not excite the general indignation, and tend to bring 
down upon the authors of such measures, the aggravated vengeance 
of heaven ? If, after all, a spirit of disunion, or a temper of obsti- 
nacy and perverseness should manifest itself in any of the States ; 
if such an ungracious disposition should attempt to frustrate all the 
happ3 r effects that might be expected to flow from the Union ; if 
there should be a refusal to comply with the requisitions for funds to 
discharge the annual interest of the public debts, and if that refusal 
should revive all those jealousies, and produce all those evils which 
are now happily removed — Congress, who have in all their transac- 
tions shown a great degree of magnanimity and justice, will stand 
justified in the sight of God and man ! And that State alone, which 
puts itself in opposition to the aggregate wisdom of the continent, and 
follows such mistaken and pernicious counsels, will be responsible 
for all the consequences. 

For my own part, conscious of having acted while a servant of the 
public, in the manner I conceived best suited to promote the real in- 
terests of my country : having, in consequence of my fixed belief, in 
some measure pledged myself to the army that their country w r ould 
finally do them complete and ample justice, and not willing to con- 
ceal any instance of my official conduct from the eyes of the world, I 
have thought proper to transmit to your Excellency the enclosed 
collection of papers, relative to the half-pay and commutation granted 
by Congress to the officers of the army ; from these communications, 
my decided sentiments will be clearly comprehended, together with 
the conclusive reasons, which induced me at an early period, to re- 
commend the adoption of this measure in the most earnest and 
serious manner. As the proceedings of Congress, the army, and 
myself are open to all, and contain, in my opinion, sufficient informa- 
tion to remove the prejudice and errors which may have been enter- 
tained by any, I think it unnecessary to say anything more, than just 
to observe, that the resolutions of Congress, now alluded to, are as 
undoubtedly and absolutely binding on the United States, as the 
most solemn acts of confederation or legislation. 



WASHINGTON'S CIRCULAR LETTER. 461 

As to the idea, which I am informed has, in some instances, pre- 
vailed, that the half-pay and commutation are to be regarded merely 
in the odious light of a pension, it ought to be exploded for ever ; 
that provision should be viewed, as it really was, a reasonable com- 
pensation offered by Congress, at a time when they had nothing else 
to give to officers of the army, for services then to be performed : it 
was the only means to prevent a total dereliction of the service ; it 
was a part of their hire. I may be allowed to say, it was the price 
of their blood, and of your independency ; it is therefore more than a 
common debt, it is a debt of honor ; it can never be considered as a 
pension or gratuity, nor cancelled until it is fairly discharged. 

With regard to the distinction between officers and soldiers, it is 
sufficient that the uniform experience of every nation in the world, 
combined with our own, proves the utility and propriety of the dis- 
crimination. Rewards, in proportion to the aid the public draws 
from them, are unquestionably due to all its servants. In some 
lines, the soldiers have perhaps generally had as ample compensation 
for their services, by the large bounties which have been paid to 
them, as their officers will receive in the proposed commutation : in 
others, if, besides the donation of land, the payment of arrearages of 
clothing and wages (in which articles all the component parts of the 
army must be put upon the same footing) we take into the estimate 
the bounties many of the soldiers have received, and the gratuity of 
one year's full pay, which is promised to all, possibly their situa- 
tion (every circumstance being duly considered) will not be deemed 
less eligible than that of the officers. Should a further reward, how- 
ever, be judged equitable, I will venture to assert, no man will enjoy 
greater satisfaction than myself, in an exemption from taxes for a 
limited time (which has been petitioned for in some instances), or 
any other adequate immunity or compensation granted to the brave 
defenders of their country's cause ; but neither the adoption nor rejec- 
tion of this proposition will in any manner affect, much less militate 
against, the act of Congress, by which they have offered five years' 
full pay, in lieu of the half-pay for life, which had been before pro- 
mised to the officers of the army. 

Before I conclude the subject on public justice, I cannot omit to 
mention the obligations this country is under to that meritorious class 
of veterans, the non-commissioned officers and privates who have 
been discharged for inability, in consequence of the resolution of 
Congress, of the 23d of April, 1782, on an annual pension for life. 
Their peculiar sufferings, their singular merits and claims to that 
provision, need only to be known, to interest the feelings of humanity 
in their behalf. Nothing but a punctual payment of their annual 
allowance can rescue them from the most complicated misery ; and 
nothing could be a more melancholy and distressing sight, than to 
behold those who have shed their blood, or lost their limbs in the 
service of their country, without a shelter, without a friend, and 
without the means of obtaining any of the comforts or necessaries of 
life, compelled to beg their daily bread from door to door. Suffer 



462 APPENDIX. 

me to recommend those of this description, belonging to your State, 
to the warmest patronage of your Excellency and your Legislature. 

It is necessary to say but a few words on the third topic which 
was proposed, and which regards particularly the defence of the 
republic. As there can be little doubt but Congress will recommend 
a proper peace establishment for the United States, in which a due 
attention will be paid to the importance of placing the militia of the 
Union upon a regular and respectable footing ; if this should be the 
case, I should beg leave to urge the great advantage of it in the 
strongest terms. 

The militia of this country must be considered as the palladium 
of our security, and the first effectual resort in case of hostility ; it is 
essential, therefore, that the same system should pervade the 
whole ; that the formation and discipline of the militia of the conti- 
nent should be absolutely uniform ; and that the same species of 
arms, accoutrements, and military apparatus, should be introduced in 
every part of the United States. No one, who has not learned it 
from experience, can conceive the difficulty, expense, and confusion 
which result from a contrary system, or the vague arrangements 
which have hitherto prevailed. 

If, in treating of political points, a greater latitude than usual has 
been taken in the course of the Address, the importance of the 
crisis and magnitude of the objects in discussion, must be my 
apology ; it is, however, neither my wish nor expectation, that the 
preceding observations should claim any regard, except so far as they 
shall appear to be dictated by a good intention, consonant to the 
immutable rules of justice, calculated to produce a liberal system 
of policy, and founded on whatever experience may have been ac- 
quired by a long and close attention to public business. Here I 
might speak with more confidence, from my actual observations ; and 
if it would not swell this letter (already too prolix) beyond the bounds 
I had prescribed myself, I could demonstrate to every mind, open to 
conviction, that in less time, and with much less expense than has 
been incurred, the war might have been brought to the same happy 
conclusion, if the resources of the continent could have been properly 
called forth ; that the distresses and disappointments which have 
very often occurred, have, in too many instances, resulted more from 
a want of energy in the continental government, than a deficiency of 
means in the particular States ; that the inefficiency of the measures, 
arising from the want of an adequate authority in the supreme power, 
from a partial compliance with the requisitions of Congress in some 
of the States, and from a failure of punctuality in others, while they 
tended to damp the zeal of those who were more willing to exert 
themselves, served also to accumulate the expenses of the war, and 
to frustrate the best concerted plans ; and that the discouragement 
occasioned by the complicated difficulties and embarrassments in 
which our affairs were by this means involved, would have long ago 
produced the dissolution of any army less patient, less virtuous, and 
less persevering than that which I have had the honor to command. 
But while 1 mention those things which are notorious facts, as the 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ORDERS TO THE ARMY. 463 

defects of our Federal Constitution, particularly in the prosecution 
of a war, I beg it may be understood, that as I have ever taken a 
pleasure in gratefully acknowledging the assistance and support I 
have derived from every class of citizens ; so shall I always be 
happy to do justice to the unparalleled exertions of the individual 
States, on many interesting occasions. 

I have thus freely disclosed what I wished to make known before 
I surrendered up my public trust to those who committed it to me ; 
the task is now accomplished. I now bid adieu to your Excellency, 
as the Chief Magistrate of your State ; at the same time I bid a last 
farewell to the cares of office, and all the employments of public 
life 

It remains, then, to be my final and only request, that your Excel- 
lency will communicate these sentiments to your legislature, at their 
next meeting, and. that they may be considered as the legacy of one 
who has ardently wished, on all occasions, to be useful to his coun- 
try, and who, even in the shade of retirement, will not fail to implore 
the divine benediction upon it. 

I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and. 
the State over which you preside, in his holy protection ; that he 
would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subor- 
dination and obedience to government ; to entertain a brotherly affec- 
tion and love for one another ; for their fellow-citizens of the United 
States at large ; and particularly for their brethren who have served 
in the field ; and, finally, that he would most graciously be pleased 
to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean our- 
selves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of the mind, 
which were the characteristics of the divine Author of our blessed 
religion ; without an humble imitation of whose example, in these 
things, we can never hope to be a happy nation. 

I have the honor to be, with much esteem and. respect, Sir, your 
Excellency's most obodient and most humble servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 



NOTE XIII. PAGE 358. 

FAREWELL ORDERS 

OF GENL. WASHINGTON TO THE ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Rocky Hill, near Princeton, Nov. 2, 1783. 

The United States in Congress assembled, after giving the most 
honorable testimony to the merits of the federal armies, and present- 
ing them with the thanks of their country, for their long, eminent, 
and faithful service, having thought proper, by their proclamation 
bearing date the 16th of October last, to discharge such part of the 
troops as were engaged for the war, and to permit the officers on 
furlough to retire from service, from and after to-morrow, which pro- 



464 APPENDIX. 

clamation having been communicated in the public papers for the 
Information and government of all concerned ; it only remains for 
the Commander-in-chief to address himself once more, and that for 
the last time, to the armies of the United States (however widely dis- 
persed individuals who compose them may be), and to bid them an 
affectionate, a long farewell. 

But before the Commander-in-chief takes his final leave of those 
he holds most dear, he wishes to indulge himself a few moments in 
calling to mind a slight review of the past ; — he will then take the 
liberty of exploring, with his military friends, their future prospects ; 
of advising the general line of conduct which in his opinion ought to 
be pursued ; and he will conclude the Address, by expressing the 
obligations he feels himself under for the spirited and able assistance 
he has experienced from them, in the performance of an arduous 
office. 

A contemplation of the complete attainment (at a period earlier 
than could have been expected) of the object for which we contended 
against so formidable a power, cannot but inspire us with astonish- 
ment and gratitude. The disadvantageous circumstances on our 
part, under which the war was undertaken, can never be forgotten. 
The singular interpositions of Providence in our feeble condition, 
were such as could scarcely escape the attention of the most unob- 
serving — while the unparalleled perseverance of the armies of the 
United States, through almost every possible suffering and discou- 
ragement, for the space of eight long years, was little short of a 
standing miracle. 

It is not the meaning, nor within the compass of this Address, to 
detail the hardships peculiarly incident to our service, or to describe 
the distresses which in several instances have resulted from the ex- 
tremes of hunger and nakedness, combined with the rigors of an in- 
clement season : nor is it necessary to dwell on the dark side of our 
past affairs. Every American officer and soldier must now console 
himself for any unpleasant circumstances which may have occurred 
by a recollection of the uncommon scenes in which he has been 
called to act no inglorious part, and the astonishing events of which 
he has been a witness ; events which have seldom, if ever before, 
taken place on the stage of human action, nor can they probably ever 
happen again. For who has before seen a disciplined army formed 
at once from such raw materials ? Who that was not a witness 
could imagine that the most violent local prejudices would cease so 
soon, and that men who came from different parts of the continent, 
strongly disposed by the habits of education to despise and quarrel 
with each other, would instantly become but one patriotic band of 
brothers ? Or who that was not on the spot, can trace the steps by 
which such a wonderful revolution has been effected, and such a 
glorious period put to all our warlike toils ? 

It is universally acknowledged, that the enlarged prospects of 
happiness, opened by the confirmation of our independence and 
sovereignty, almost exceed the power of description ; and shall not 
the brave men who have contributed so essentially to these inesti- 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ORDERS TO THE ARMY. 465 

mable acquisitions, retiring victorious from the field of war to the 
field of agriculture, participate in all the blessings which have been 
obtained ? In such a republic, who will exclude them from the 
rights of citizens, and the fruits of their labors ? In such a country, 
so happily circumstanced, the pursuits of commerce and the cultiva- 
tion of the soil, will unfold to industry the certain road to compe- 
tence. To those hardy soldiers who are actuated by the spirit of 
adventure, the fisheries will afford ample and profitable employ- 
ment ; and the extensive and fertile regions of the West will yield a 
most happy asylum for those who, fond of domestic enjoyment, are 
seeking personal independence. Nor is it possible to conceive that 
any one of the United States will prefer a national bankruptcy, and 
dissolution of the Union, to a compliance with the requisitions of 
Congress, and the payment of its just debts ; so that the officers and 
soldiers may expect considerable assistance, in re-commencing their 
civil operations, from the sums due to them from the public, which 
must and will most inevitably be paid. 

In order to effect this desirable purpose, and to remove the 
prejudices which may have taken possession of the minds of any of 
the good people of the States, it is earnestly recommended to all the 
troops, that, with strong attachments to the Union, they should carry 
with them into civil society the most conciliating dispositions ; and 
that they should prove themselves not less virtuous and useful as 
citizens, than they have been persevering and victorious as soldiers. 
What though there should be some envious individuals who are un- 
willing to pay the debt the public has contracted, or to yield the 
tribute due to merit ; yet let such unworthy treatment produce no 
invective, or any instance of intemperate conduct ; let it be remem- 
bered that the unbiassed voice of the free citizens of the United 
States has promised the just reward, and given the merited 
applause ; let it be known and remembered, that the reputation of the 
federal armies is established beyond the reach of malevolence ; and 
let a consciousness of their achievements and fame still excite the 
men who composed them, to honorable actions, under the persuasion 
that the private virtues of economy, prudence, and industry, will not 
be less amiable in civil life, than the more splendid qualities of 
valor, perseverance, and enterprise were in the field. Every one 
may rest assured that much, very much of the future happiness of 
the officers and men will depend upon the wise and manly conduct 
which shall be adopted by them, when they are mingled with the 
great body of the community. And although the General has so 
frequently given it as his opinion, in the most public and explicit 
manner, that unless the principles of the Federal Government were 
properly supported, and the powers of the Union increased, the 
honor, dignity, and justice of the nation would be lost for ever ; yet 
he cannot help repeating on this occasion so interesting a sentiment, 
and leaving it as his last injunction to every officer and every soldier 
who may view the subject in the same serious point of light, to add 
his best endeavors to those of his worthy fellow-citizens, towards 



466 APPENDIX. 

effecting these great and valuable purposes, on which our very exist- 
ence as a nation so materially depends. 

The Commander-in-chief conceives little is now wanting to enable 
the soldier to change the military character into that of a citizen, but 
that steady and decent tenor of behavior, which has generally distin- 
guished not only the army under his immediate command, but the 
different detachments and separate armies, through the course of the 
war. From their good sense and prudence he anticipates the hap- 
piest consequences : and while he congratulates them on the glorious 
occasion which renders their services in the field no longer neces- 
sary, he wishes to express the strong obligations he feels himself 
under for the assistance he has received from every class, and in 
every instance. He presents his thanks, in the most serious and 
affectionate manner to the general officers, as well for their counsel 
on many interesting occasions, as for their ardor in promoting the 
success of the plans he had adopted ; to the commandants of regi- 
ments and corps, and to the officers for their zeal and attention in 
carrying his orders promptly into execution ; to the staff, for their 
alacrity and exactness in performing the duties of their several de- 
partments, and to the non-commissioned officers and private soldiers 
for their extraordinary patience in suffering, as well as their invinci- 
ble fortitude in action. To various branches of the army the Gene- 
ral takes this last and solemn opportunity of professing his inviolable 
attachment and friendship. He wishes more than bare profession 
were in his power, that he was really able to be useful to them all in 
future life. He flatters himself, however, they will do him the jus- 
tice to believe, that whatever could with propriety be attempted by 
him, has been done. And being now to conclude these his last 
public orders, to take his ultimate leave, in a short time, of the mili- 
tary character, and to bid a final adieu to the armies he has so long 
had the honor to command, he can only again offer, in their behalf, 
his recommendations to their grateful country, and his prayers to the 
God of armies. May ample justice be done them here, and may the 
choicest of heaven's favors, both here and hereafter, attend those 
who, under the divine auspices, have secured innumerable blessings 
for others ! With these wishes, and this benediction, the Com- 
mander-in-chief is about to retire from service. The curtain of 
separation will soon be drawn — and the military scene to him will be 
closed for ever 



NOTE XIV. PAGE 363. 

DR. FRANKLIN'S MOTION FOR PRAYERS 

IN THE CONVENTION. 

Mr. President : — The small progress we have made after four or 
five weeks' close attendance and continual reasonings with each 
other, oar different sentiments on almost every question, several of 



FRANKLIN'S MOTION FOR PRAYERS. 467 

the last producing as many Noes as Ayes, is mcthinks a melancholy 
proof of the imperfection of the human understanding. We indeed 
seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been 
running all about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient 
history for models of government, and examined the different forms 
of those republics, which, having been originally formed with the 
seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer exist ; and we have 
viewed modern states all round Europe, but find none of their con- 
stitutions suitable to our circumstances. 

In this situation of this assembly, groping, as it were, in the dark, 
to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when present- 
ed to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once 
thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our 
understanding ? In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when 
we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for 
the divine protection ? Our prayers, sir, were heard ; and they were 
graciously answered. All of us, who were engaged in the struggle, 
must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Provi- 
dence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owe this happy 
opportunity of consulting in peace the means of establishing our 
future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful 
friend ? or do we imagine we no longer need his assistance — I have 
lived, sir, a long time ; and the longer I live the more convincing 
proofs I see of this truth, That God governs in the affairs of men ! 
And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it 
probable that an empire can rise without his aid ? We have been 
assured, sir, in the Sacred Writings, that " except the Lord build the 
house, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this : and 1 
also believe, that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this 
political building no better than the builders of Babel : we shall be 
divided by our little partial local interests, our projects will be con- 
founded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a by-word 
down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, 
from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by 
human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest. 

I therefore beg leave to move, That henceforth prayers, imploring 
the assistance of heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be 
held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business ; 
and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to 
officiate in that service. 

[Note by Dr. Franklin.] " The convention, except three or four 
persons, thought prayers unnecessary /" 



468 APPENDIX. 

NOTE XV. — PAGE 364. 

PROCEEDINGS 

RELATING TO THE FORMATION AND ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITU- 
TION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

On the eleventh of September, 1786, commissioners from several 
states met at Annapolis, in Maryland, " to consider on the best means 
of remedying the defects of the Federal government."* Mr. Dick- 
inson, of Delaware, was unanimously elected chairman. After a 
full communication of sentiments, and deliberate consideration, they 
unanimously agreed that a committee should be appointed to prepare 
a draft of a report to be made to the State. Accordingly a committee 
was appointed, who submitted the following on the fourteenth : — 

To the honorable the legislatures of Virginia, Delaware, Penn- 
sylvania, New Jersey, and New York, the commissioners from the 
said states respectively, assembled at Annapolis, humbly beg leave 
to report : — 

That, pursuant to their several appointments, they met at Annapo- 
lis, in the state of Maryland, on the eleventh day of September in- 
stant, and having proceeded to a communication of their powers, they 
found that the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, had, 
in substance, and nearly in the same terms, authorized their respect- 
ive commissioners " to meet such commissioners as were or might 
be appointed by the other states in the Union, at such time and 
place as should be agreed upon by the said commissioners,, to take 
into consideration the trade and commerce of the United States, to 
consider how far a uniform system in their commercial intercourse 
and regulations, might be necessary to their common interest and 
permanent harmony, and to report to the several states such an act 
relative to this great object, as, when unanimously ratified by them, 
would enable the United States, in Congress assembled, effectually 
to provide for the same." 

That the state of Delaware had given similar powers to their com- 
missioners, with this difference only, that the act to be framed in 
virtue of these powers, is required to be reported " to the United 
States, in Congress assembled, to be agreed to by them, and con- 
firmed by the legislatures of every state." 

That the state of New Jersey had enlarged the object of their 
appointment, empowering their commissioners " to consider how far 
a uniform system in their commercial regulations, and other import- 
ant matters, might be necessary to the common interest and perma- 
nent harmony of the several states ;" and to report such an act on the 

* The names of the members of the convention were as follows : — New York, 
Alexander Hamilton, Egbert Benson ; New Jersey, Abraham Clark, William C. 
Houston, James Schureman ; Pennsylvania, Tench Coxe ; Delaware, George Read, 
John Dickinson, Richard Basset; Virginia, Edmund Randolph, James Madison, 
Jr., Saint George Tucker. 



CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 469 

subject, as, when ratified by them, " would enable the United States, 
in Congress assembled, effectually to provide for the exigencies of 
the Union." 

That appointments of commissioners have also been made by the 
states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and North 
Carolina, none of whom, however, have attended ; but that no infor- 
mation has been received by your commissioners of an)' appointment 
having been made by the states of Connecticut, Maryland, South 
Carolina, or Georgia. 

That the express terms of the powers to your commissioners sup- 
posing a deputation from all the states, and having for object the trade 
and commerce of the United States, your commissioners did not 
conceive it advisable to proceed on the business of their mission 
under the circumstances of so partial and defective a representation. 

Deeply impressed, however, with the magnitude and importance 
of the object confided to them on this occasion, your commissioners 
cannot forbear to indulge an expression of their earnest and unani- 
mous wish, that speedy measures may be taken to effect a general 
meeting of the states, in a future convention, for the same and such 
other purposes as the situation of public affairs may be found to 
require. 

If, in expressing this wish, or in intimating any other sentiment, 
your commissioners should seem to exceed the strict bounds of their 
appointment, they entertain a full confidence, that a conduct dictated 
by an anxiety for the welfare of the United Stales, will not fail to 
receive an indulgent construction. 

In this persuasion, your commissioners submit an opinion, that the 
idea of extending the powers of their deputies to other objects than 
those of commerce, which has been adopted by the state of New 
Jersey, was an improvement on the original plan, and will deserve to 
be incorporated into that of a future convention. They are the more 
naturally led to this conclusion, as, in the course of their reflections 
on the subject, they have been induced to think that the power of 
regulating trade is of such comprehensive extent, and will enter so 
far into the general system of the federal government, that to give it 
efficacy, and to obviate questions and doubts concerning its precise 
nature and limits, may require a correspondent adjustment of other 
parts of the federal system. 

That there are important defects in the system of the federal 
government, is acknowledged by the acts of all those states which 
have concurred in the present meeting ; that the defects, upon a 
closer examination, may be found greater and more numerous than 
even these acts imply, is at least so far probable, from the embarrass- 
ments which characterize the present state of our national affairs, 
foreign and domestic, as may reasonably be supposed to merit a de- 
liberate and candid discussion, in some mode which will unite the 
sentiments and councils of all the states. In the choice of the mode, 
your commissioners are of opinion that a convention of deputies 
from the different states, for the special and sole purpose of entering 
into this investigation, and digesting 9 plan for supplying such 



470 APPENDIX. 

defect,* as may be discovered to exist, will be entitled to a preference, 
from considerations which will occur without being particularized. 

Your commissioners decline an enumeration of those national cir- 
cumstances on which their opinion respecting the propriety of a 
future convention, with more enlarged powers, is founded ; as it 
would be a useless intrusion of facts and observations, most of 
which have been frequently the subject of public discussion, and 
none of which can have escaped the penetration of those to whom 
they would, in this instance, be addressed. They are, however, of 
a nature so serious, as, in the view of your commissioners, to render 
the situation of the United States delicate and critical, calling for an 
exertion of the united virtue and wisdom of all the members of the 
confederacy. 

Under this impression, your commissioners, with the most respect- 
ful deference, beg leave to suggest their unanimous conviction, that 
it may essentially tend to advance the interests of the Union, if the 
states, by whom they have been respectively delegated, would them- 
selves concur, and use their endeavors to procure the concurrence 
of the other states, in the appointment of commissioners, to meet at 
Philadelphia, on the second Monday in May next, to take into consi- 
deration the situation of the United States, to devise such further 
provisions as shall appear to them necessary, to render the constitu- 
tion of the federal government adequate to the exigencies of the 
Union ; and to report such an act for that purpose, to the United 
States, in Congress assembled, as, when agreed to by them, and 
afterward confirmed by the legislatures of every state, will effectually 
provide for the same. 

Though your commissioners could not, with propriety, address 
these observations and sentiments to any but the states they have the 
honor to represent, they have nevertheless concluded, from motives 
of respect, to transmit copies of this report to the United States, in 
Congress assembled, and to the executives of the other states. 

By order of the commissioners, 

Dated at Annapolis, September 14th, 1786 

This report was adopted, and transmitted to Congress. On the 
twenty-first of February, the committee of that body, consisting of 
Messrs. Dane, Varnum, S. M. Mitchell, Smith, Cadwallader, 
Irvine, N. Mitchell, Forrest, Grayson, Blount, Bull, and Few, to 
whom the report of the commissioners was referred, reported thereon, 
and offered the following resolutions, viz. — 

Congress having had under consideration the letter of John 
Dickinson, Esq., chairman of the commissioners who assembled at 
Annapolis, during the last year ; also the proceedings of the said 
commissioners, and entirely coinciding with them, as to the ineffi- 
ciency of the federal government, and the necessity of devising such 
further provisions as shall render the same adequate to the exigen- 
cies of the Union, do strongly recommend to the different legis- 
latures to send forward delegates, to meet the proposed convention, 
on the second Monday in May next, at the city of Philadelphia. 



CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 471 

The delegates for the state of New York thereupon laid before 
Congress instructions which they had received from their constitu 
ents, and in pursuance of the said instructions, moved to postpone 
the further consideration of the report, in order to take up the follow- 
ing proposition, viz. — 

" That it be recommended to the states composing the Union, that 
a convention of representatives from the said states respectively, be 

held at , on , for the purpose of revising the articles of 

confederation and perpetual union between the United States of 
America, and reporting to the United States, in Congress assembled, 
and to the states respectively, such alterations and amendments of 
the said articles of confederation, as the representatives, met in such 
convention, shall judge proper and necessary to render them ade- 
quate to the preservation and support of the Union." 

On taking the question, only three states voted in the affirmative, 
and the resolution was negatived. 

A motion was then made by the delegates for Massachusetts, to 
postpone the further consideration of the report, in order to take into 
consideration a motion which they read in their place ; this being 
agreed to, the motion of the delegates for Massachusetts was taken 
up, and being amended was agreed to, as follows : — 

" Whereas, there is provision in the articles of confederation and 
perpetual union, for making alterations therein, by the assent of a 
Congress of the United States, and of the legislatures of the several 
states ; and, whereas, experience hath evinced that there are defects 
in the present confederation, as a mean to remedy which, several of 
the states, and particularly the state of New York, by express in- 
structions to their delegates in Congress, have suggested a conven- 
tion for the purposes expressed in the following resolution ; and such 
convention appearing to be the most probable means of establishing, 
in these states, a firm national government : — 

" Resolved, That, in the opinion of Congress, it is expedient that, 
on the second Monday in May next, a convention of delegates who 
shall have been appointed by the several states, be held at Philadel- 
phia, for the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of con- 
federation, and reporting to Congress, and the several legislatures, 
such alterations and provisions therein, as shall, when agreed to in 
Congress, and confirmed by the states, render the federal constitution 
adequate to the exigencies of the government. 

" Resolved, That, in the opinion of Congress, it is expedient that, 
on the second Monday in May next, a convention of delegates who 
shall have been appointed by the several states, be held at Philadel- 
phia, for the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of con- 
federation, and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures, 
such alteration and provisions therein, as shall, when agreed to in 
Congress, and confirmed by the states, render the federal constitution 
adequate to the exigencies of the government, and the preservation 
of the Union." 

In compliance with the recommendation of Congress, delegates 
were chosen in the several states, for the purpose of revising the 



472 APPENDIX. 

articles of confederation, who assembled in Philadelphia, on the 
second Monday in May, 17S7. General Washington was chosen 
president of the convention. On the 17th of September, 1787, the 
convention having agreed upon the several articles of the federal con- 
stitution, it was adopted and signed by all the members present.* 

On Friday, the 28th of September, 1787, the Congress having re- 
ceived the report of the convention, with the constitution, recom- 
mended for ratification by the several states, and by Congress, 
adopted the following resolution : — 

" Resolved unanimously, That the said report, with the resolu- 
tions and letters accompanying the same, be transmitted to the 
several legislatures, in order to be submitted to a convention of dele- 
gates chosen in each state by the people thereof, in conformity to the 
resolves of the convention, made and provided in that case." 

The Constitution having been ratified by the requisite number of 
States, t and a certification thereof made to Congress, that body, on 
the thirteenth of September, 1788, passed the following resolutions 
by the unanimous vote of nine states : — 

* The names of the Delegates to the Convention which met at Philadelphia, in 
May, 1757, to frame a new constitution, were as follows : — 

New Hampshire, on the 27th of June, 17S7, appointed John Langdon, John 
Pickering, Nicholas Gilman, and Benjamin West. " 

Massachusetts, on the 9th of April, 1757, appointed Francis Dana, Elbridge 
Gerry, Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King, and Caleb Strong. 

Connecticut, on the second Thursday of May, 1750, appointed William Samuel 
Johnson, Roger Sherman, and Oliver Ellsworth 

New York, on the 6th of March, 17S7, appointed Robert Yates, John Lansing, jr., 
and Alexander Hamilton. 

New Jersey, on the 23d of November, 1750, appointed David Brearly, William 
Churchill Houston, William Paterson, and John Neilson; and on the 5th of May, 
1787, added William Livingston and Abraham Clark ; and on the 5th of June, 17;>7, 
added Jonathan Dayton. 

Pennsylvania, on the 30th of December, 17S6, appointed Thomas Mifflin, Robert 
Morris, George Clymer, Jared Ingersoll, Thomas Fitzsimons, James Wilson, and 
Governeur Morris ; and on the 25th of March, 17S7, added Benjamin Franklin. 

Delaware, on tbe 3d of February, 1757, appointed George Read, Gunning Bedford, 
jr., John Dickinson, Richard Bassett, and Jacob Broom. 

Maryland, on the 20th of May, 1757, appointed James M'Henrv, Daniel of St. 
Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll, John Francis Mercer, and Luther Martin. 

Virginia, on the 16th of October, 1756, appointed George Washington, Patrick 
Henry, Edmund Randolph, John Blair, James Madison, jr., George Mason, and 
George Wythe. Patrick Henry having declined his appointment as deputy, James 
M'Clure was nominated to supply his place. 

North Carolina, in January, 1757, elected Richard Caswell, Alexander Martin, 
William Richardson Davie, Richard Dobbs Spaight, and Willie Jones. Richard Cas- 
well having resigned, William Blount was appointed a deputy in his place. Willie 
Jones having also declined his appointment, was supplied by Hugh Williamson. 

South Carolina, on the 8th of March, 1757, appointed John Rutledge, Charles 
Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Pierce Butler. 

Georgia, on the 10th of February, 1787, appointed William Few, Abraham Bald- 
win, William Pierce, George Walton, William Houston, and Nathaniel Pendleton. 

t The following are the dates of the Ratification of the Constitution, bv the thir- 
teen Old States :— 



Delaware . . 


December 7, 


1787 


South Carolina 


May 


23, 


17s5 


Pennsylvania 


December 12 


1757 


New Hampshire . 


June 


21, 


1755 


New Jersey 


December 15, 


17-7 


Virginia 


June 


20, 


17-55 


Georgia 


January 2, 


1788 


New York . . . 


July 


20, 


1768 


Connecticut 


January 9, 


1788 


North Carolina 


Nov. 


21, 


1739 


Massachusetts . 


February 6, 


1778 


Rhode Island . 


May 


29, 


1790 


Maryland 


April 28, 


1788 











ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 473 

" Whereas, the convention assembled in Philadelphia, pursuant to 
the resolution of Congress, of the twenty-first of February, 1787, did, 
on the seventeenth of September, in the same year, report to the 
United States in Congress assembled, a constitution for the people of 
the United States ; whereupon, Congress, on the twenty-eighth of 
the same September, did resolve unanimously, that the said report, 
with the resolutions and letter accomnanying the same, be transmit- 
ted to the several legislatures, in order to be submitted to a conven- 
tion of delegates, chosen in each state by the people thereof, in con- 
formity to the resolves of the convention, made and provided in that 
case ; and whereas the constitution so reported by the convention, 
and by Congress transmitted to the several legislatures, has been 
ratified in the manner therein declared to be sufficient for the esta- 
blishment of the same, and such ratifications, duly authenticated, 
have been received by Congress, and are filed in the office of the 
secretary, therefore — 

" Resolved, That the first Wednesday in January next be the 
day for appointing electors in the several states which before the 
said day shall have ratified the said constitution ; that the first 
Wednesday in February next be the day for the electors to assemble 
in their respective states, and vote for a president ; and that the first 
Wednesday in March next be the time, and the present seat of Con- 
gress [New York] the place, for commencing proceedings under the 
said constitution." 

While the constitution was under consideration in the various 
states, its provisions were explained and its utility defended by 
Madison, Jay, and Hamilton, in a series of Essays under the title of 
" The Federalist.''* It was not an easy matter to frame an instru- 
ment perfectly adapted to the wants of thirteen distinct, and wide- 
spreading republics, whose domestic habits and social institutions 
were so varied, and, therefere, the constitution met with much oppo- 
sition. Even Washington and Franklin deemed it defective, yet they 
overlooked its errors, and sacrificed their own opinions for the gene~ 
ral good.f So with Patrick Henry ; he violently opposed it in the 
Virginia Assembly, but yielded quietly to the will of the majority. 
Partial Republicanism was too little understood by the great mass 
of the people, for them to clearly perceive how its theory could be 
realized under a federal form of government ; and in their earnest 
desire to make the svstem democratic, to its fullest practicable extent. 
they looked with jealous eye upon everything that tended towards a 
consolidation of political power. They regarded Paine's jurispru- 
dential postulate — " the best system is a strong people and a iceak 
government " — as true, and in this opinion they were correct. But 

* This title became the cognomen of the party who espoused the constitution, and 
its opponents wrre called Anti-Federalists. These have ever since formed the basis 
of distinction between the two leading poli.ical parties in this country. 

t Washington said in a letter, " There are some things in the new form, I will 
readily acknowledge, which never did, and I am persuaded never will, obtain my 
cordial approbation. But Idid then conceive, and do now most rirmly believe, that, 
in the aggregate, it is the best constitution that can be obtained at this epoch, and 
that this, or a dissolution, awaits our choice, ane is the only alternative." 

31 



474 APPExNDIX. 

they waived partial rights for the promotion of the general good. 
The constitution was necessarily a compromise, and rights and pri- 
vileges were surrendered by the different states without any manifest 
equivalent. 

Subjoined is a certified copy of the constitution, with all its 
amendments, and profusely annotated. 

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 

COPIED FROM, AND COMPARED WITH, THE ROLL IN THE DEPARTMENT 

OF STATE. 



We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common 
defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty 
to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution 
for the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I. 

Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a 
Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a senate and house 
of representatives. 

Section 2. The house of representatives shall be composed of mem- 
bers chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the 
electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of 
the most numerous branch of the state legislature. 

No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to the 
age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in 
which he shall be chosen. 

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several 
states which may be included within this Union, according to their re- 
spective numbers,* which shall be determined by adding to the whole 
number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of 
years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons. 
The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first 
meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent 
term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The num- 
ber of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand,! but 
each state shall have at least one representative ; and until such enumera- 
tion shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose 
three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, 
Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, 
Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South 
Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

* The constitutional provision, that direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several 
states according to their respective numbers, to be ascertained by a census, was not intended 
to restrict the power of imposing direct taxes to states only. — Loughborough vs. Blake, b 
Wheaton, 319. 

t See laws United States, vol. ii., chap. 124 ; iii., 261 ; iv., 332. Acts of 17th Congress, 
1st cession, chap. x. ; and cf the 22d and 27th Congress. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 475 

When vacancies happen in the representation from any state, the exec- 
utive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 

The house of representatives shall choose their speaker and other offi- 
cers ; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Section 3. The senate of the United States shall be composed of two 
senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years ; 
and each senator shall have one vote.* 

Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first 
election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. 
The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expira- 
tion of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth 
year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one 
third may be chosen every second year ; and if vacancies happen by resig- 
nation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any state, the 
executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meet- 
ing of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 

No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of 
thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who 
shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall 
be chosen. 

The vice-president of the United States shall be president of the senate, 
but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

The senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president pro- 
tempore, in the absence of the vice-president, or when he shall exercise 
the office of president of the United States. 

The senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments : When 
sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the 
president of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall preside : And 
no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the 
members present. 

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to re- 
moval from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of 
honor, trust or profit under the United States : but the party convicted 
shall nevertheless be liable and subject, to indictment, trial, judgment and 
punishment, according to law. 

Section 4. The times, places and manner of holding elections for sen- 
ators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legisla- 
ture thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such 
regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. 

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meet- 
ing shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law 
appoint a different day. 

Section 5. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns and 
qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute 
a quorum to do business , but a smaller number may adjourn from day to 
day. and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, 
irwsuch manner, and under such penalties as each house may provide. 

Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings,! punish its 

• See art. v., clause 1. * 

t To an action of trespass against the sergeant-at-arms of the house of representatives 
of the United States for assault and battery and false imprisonment, it is a legal justifica- 
tion and bar to plead that a Congress was held and sitting during the period ot the tres- 
passes complained, and that the house of representatives had resolved that the plaintiff had 
been guilty of a breach of the privileges of the house, and of a high contempt of the dignity 



476 APPENDIX. 

members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, 
expel a member. 

Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to 
time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment re- 
quire secresy ; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house on 
any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered 
on the journal. 

Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the con- 
sent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place 
than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 

Section 6. The senators and representatives shall receive a compen- 
sation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the 
treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, 
felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their at- 
tendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to and re- 
turning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either house, they 
shall not be questioned in any other place. 

No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was 
elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United 
States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall 
have been increased during such time ; and no person holding any office 
under the United States, shall be a member of either house during his con- 
tinuance in office. 

Section 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the house of 
representatives ; but the senate may propose or concur with amendments 
as on other bills. 

Every bill which shall have passed the house of representatives and the 
senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the president of the 
United States ; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, 
with his objections to that house in which it shall have originated, who 
shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to recon- 
sider it. If after such reconsideration two thirds of that house shall agree 
to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other 
house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two 
thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes 
of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of 
the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal 
of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the pres- 
ident within ten days (Sunday excepted) after it shall have been presented 
to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, un- 
less the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case 
it shall not. be a law. 

Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the senate 

and authority of the same ; and had ordered that the speaker should issue his warrant to 
the sergeant-at-arms, commanding him to take the plaintiff into custody wherever to be 
found, and to have him before the said house to answer to the said charge ; and that the 
speaker did accordingly issue such a warrant, reciting the said resolution and order, and 
commanding the sergeant-at-arms to take the plaintiff into custody, &c, and deliver the 
said warrant to the defendant : by virtue of which warrant the defendant arrested the plain- 
tiff, and conveyed him to the bar of the house, where he was heard in his defence touching 
the matter of said charge, and the examination being adjourned from day to day, and the 
house having ordered the plaintiff to be detained in custody, he was accordingly detained 
by the defendant until he was finally adjudged to be guilty and convicted of the charge 
aforesaid, and ordered to be forthwith brought to the bar and reprimanded by the speaker, 
and then discharged from custody, and after being thus reprimanded, was actually dis- 
charged from the arrest and custody aforesaid — Ar.derson vs. Dunn, 6 Wheaton, 204. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 477 

and house of representatives may be necessary (except on a question of 
adjournment) shall be presented to the president ©f the United States ; and 
before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being dis- 
approved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the senate and house 
of representatives, a-ccording to the rules and limitations prescribed in the 
case of a bill. 

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes,* 
duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common 
defence and general welfare of the United States ; but all duties, imposts 
and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States ; 

To borrow money on the credit of the United States ; 

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several 
states, and with the Indian tribes ; 

To establish an uniform rule of naturalization,! and uniform laws on the 
subject of bankruptcies! throughout the United States ; 

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix 
the standard of weights and measures ; 

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and cur- 
rent coin of the United States ; 

To establish postoffices and postroads ; 

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for lim- 
ited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective 
writings and discoveries ; 

To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court ; 

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, 
and offences against the law of nations ;|| 

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules 
concerning captures on land and water ; 

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use 
shall be for a longer term than two years ; 

To provide and maintain a navy ; 

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval 
forces ; 

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, 
suppress insurrections and repel invasions ; 

* The power of Congress to lay and collect taxes, duties, &c, extends to the District of 
Columbia, and to the territories of the United States, as well as to the states. — Loughborough 
vs. Blake, 5 Wheaton, 318. But Congress are not bound to extend a direct tax to the district 
and territories. — Id., 31S. 

f Under the constitution of the United States, the power of naturalization is exclusively 
in Congress. — Chirac vs. Chivac, 2 Wheaton, 259. 

See laws United States, vol. ii., chap. 30 ; ii., 261 ; iii., 71 ; iii., 2S8 ; Hi., 400 ; iv., 564 ; 
vi., 32. 

% Since the adoption of the constitution of the United States, a state has authority to pass 
a bankrupt law, provided such law does not impair the obligation of contracts within the 
meaning of the constitution (art. i., sect. 10), and provided there be no act of Congress in 
force to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy conflicting with such law. — Sturgess vs. 
Crowninshield, 4 Wheaton, 122, 192. 

See laws United States, vol. ii., chap. 368, sect. 2 : iii., 66 ; iii., 158. 

I| The act of the 3d March, 1819, chap. 76, sect. 5, referring to the law of nations for a 
dehnition of the crime of piracy, is a constitutional exercise of the power of Congress to de- 
fine and punish that crime. — United States vs. Smith, 5 Wheaton, 153, 157. 

Congress have power to provide for the punishment of offences committed by persons on 
board a ship-of-war of the United States, wherever that ship may lie. But Congress have 
not exercised that power in the case of a ship lying in the waters of the United States, the 
words within fort, arsenal, dockyard, magazine, or in any other place or district of country 
under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, in the third section of the act of 
1790, chap. 9, not extending to a ship-of-war, but only to objects in their nature, fixed and 
lerritoriai. — United States vs. Bevans, 3 Wheaton, 890. 



478 APPENDIX. 

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for 
governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the 
United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the 
officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline 
prescribed by Congress ;* 

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such 
district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular 
states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government 
of the United States,! and to exercise like authority over all places pur- 
chased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same 
shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other 
needful buildings ; — And 

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into 
execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this con- 
stitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or 
officer thereof.! 

Section 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the 
states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by 

* Vide amendments, art. ii. 

f Congress has authority to impose a direct tax on the District of Columbia, in propor- 
tion to the census directed to be taken by the constitution. — Loughborough vs. Blake, 5 
Whcaton, 317. 

But Congress are not bound to extend a direct tax to the district and territories. — Id., 322. 

The power of Congress to exercise exclusive jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever within 
the District of Columbia, includes the power of taxing it. — Id., 324. 

% Whenever the terms in which a power is granted by the constitution to Congress, or 
whenever the nature of the power itself requires that it should be exercised exclusively by 
Congress, the subject is as completely taken away from the state legislatures as if they had 
been expressly forbidden to act on it. — Sturgess vs. Crouninshield, 4 Wheaton, 193. 

Congress has power to incorporate a bank. — McCulloch vs. Slate of Maryland, 4 Wheaton, 
316. 

The power of establishing a corporation is not a distinct sovereign power or end of gov- 
ernment, but only the means of carrying into effect other powers which are sovereign. 
Whenever it becomes an appropriate means of exercising any of the powers given by the 
constitution to the government of the Union, it may be exercised by that government. — Id., 
411, 421. 

If a certain means to carry into effect any of the powers expressly given by the constitu- 
tion to the government of the Union, be an appropriate measure, not prohibited by the 
constitution, the degree of its necessity is a question of legislative discretion, not of judi- 
cial cognizance. — Id., 421. 

The act of the 19th April, 1816, chap. 44, to incorporate the subscribers to the bank of 
the United States, is a law made in pursuance of the constitution. — Id., 424. 

The bank of the United States has constitutionally a right to establish its branches or 
offices of discount and deposite within any state. — Id., 424. 

There is nothing in the constitution of the United States similar to the articles of confed- 
eration, which excludes incidental or implied powers. — Id., 403. 

If the end be legitimate, and within the scope of the constitution, all the means which are 
appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, and which are not prohibited, may con- 
stitutionally be employed to carry it into effect. — Id., 421. 

The powers granted to Congress are not exclusive of similar powers existing in the 
states, unless where the constitution has expressly in terms given an exclusive power to 
Congress, or the exercise of a like power is prohibited to the states, or there is a direct re 
pugnancy or incompatibility in the exercise of it by the states. — Houston vs. Moore, 5 Whea- 
ton, 49. 

The example of the first class is to be found in the exclusive legislation delegated to Con> 
gress over places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same 
shall be for forts, arsenals, dockyards, &c. Of the second class, the prohibition of a state 
to coin money or emit bills of credit. Of the third class, the power to establish a uni- 
form rule cf naturalization, and the delegation of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. 
— Id., 49. 

In all other classes of cases the states retain concurrent authority with Congress. — Iff. ,48 

But in cases of concurrent authority, where the laws of the states and of the Union are 
in direct and manifest collision on the same subject, those of the Union being the supreme 
law of the land, are of paramount authority, and the state so far, and so far only as such 
incompatibility exists, must necessarily yield. — Id., 49. 

The state within which a branch of the United States bank may be established, can not, 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 479 

the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but 
a tax or duty may he imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dol- 
lars for each person. 

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, 
unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may re- 
quire it. 

No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 

No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to 
the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 

No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. 

No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue 
to the ports of one state over those of another : nor shall vessels bound to, 
or from, one state, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 

No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of ap- 
propriations made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the 
receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time 
to time. 

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States : And no per- 
son holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the con- 
sent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of 
any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. 

Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confedera- 
tion ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of 
credit ; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of 
debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the 
obligation of contracts,* or grant any title of nobility. 

without violating the constitution, tax that branch. — McCulloch vs. State of Maryland, 4 
Wheaton, 425. 

The state governments have no right to tax any of the constitutional means employed by 
the government of the Union to execute its constitutional powers. — Id., 427. 

The states have no power by taxation, or otherwise, to retard, impede, burden, or in any 
manner control, the operation of the constitutional laws enacted by Congress, to carry into 
effect the powers vested in the national government. — Id., 436. 

This principle does not extend to a tax paid by the real property of the bank of the Uni- 
ted States, in common with the other real property in a particular state, nor to a tax im- 
posed on the proprietary which the citizens of that state may hold in common with the 
other property of the same description throughout the state. — Id., 436. 

* Where a law is in its nature a contract, where absolute rights have vested under that 
contract, a repeal of the law can not divest those rights. — Fletcher vs. Peck, 6 Cranch, S8. 

A party to a contract can not pronounce its own deed invalid, although that party be a 
sovereign state. — Id., 88. 

A gr'ant is a contract executed. — Id., 89. 

A law annulling conveyance is unconstitutional, because it is a law impairing the obliga- 
tion of contracts within the meaning of the constitution of the United States. — Id. 

The court will not declare a law to be unconstitutional, unless the opposition between the 
constitution and the law be clear and plain. — Id., 87. 

An act of the legislature of a state, declaring that certain lands which should be pur- 
chased for the Indians should not thereafter be subject to any tax, constituted a contract 
which could not, after the adoption of the constitution of the United States, be rescinded 
by a subsequent legislative act ; such rescinding act being void under the constitution of the 
United States. — State of New Jersey 'vs. Wilson, 7 Cranch, 164. 

The present constitution of the United States did not commence its operation until the 
first Wednesday in March, 1789, and the provision in the constitution, that " no state shall 
make any law impairing the obligation of contracts," does not extend to a state law enacted 
before that da}', and operating upon rights of property vesting before that time. — Ovrings vs. 
Speed, 5 Wheaton, 420,421. 

An act of a state legislature, which discharges a debtor from all liability for debts con- 
tracted previous to his discharge, on his surrendering his property for the benefit of his 
creditors, is a law impairing " the obligations of contracts," within the meaning ol the con- 
stitution of the United States, so far as it attempts to discharge the contract ; and it makes 
no difference in such a case, that the suit was brought in a state court of the state of which 
both the parlies were citizens where tho contract was made, and the discharge obtained 



480 APPENDIX. 

No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or 
duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for 
executing its inspection laws : and the net produce of all duties and im- 
posts, laid by any state on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the 
treasury of the United States ; and all such laws shall be subject tc the 
revision and control of the Congress. 

No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of ton- 
nage, keep troops, or ships-of-war in time of peace, enter into any agree- 
ment or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, or engage in 
war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit 
of delay. 

ARTICLE II. 

Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a president of the 
United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of 
four years,* and, together with the vice-president, chosen for the same 
term, be elected, as follows : 

Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may 
direct,! a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and 
representatives to which the state may be entitled in the Congress : but 
no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit 
under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

[}The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two per- 
sons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with them- 
selves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of 
votes for each ; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat 
of the government of the United States, directed to the president of the senate. The 
president of the senate shall, in the presence of the senate and house of representa- 
tives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person hav- 
ing the greatest number of votes shall be the president, if such number be a majority 
of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have 
such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the house of representatives 
shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for president ; and if no person have 
a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said house shall in like manner 
choose the president. But in choosing the president, the votes shall be taken by 
states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose 
shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the states, and a majority of 

and where they continued to reside until the suit was brought. — Farmers and Mechanics' 
Bank vs. Smith, 6 Wheaton, 131. 

The act of New York, passed on the 3d of April, 1S11 (which not only liberates the per- 
son of the debtor, but discharges him from all liability for any debt contracted previous to 
his discharge, on his surrendering his property in the manner it prescribes), so far as it at- 
tempts to discharge the contract, is a law impairing the obligation of contracts within the 
meaning of the constitution of the United States, and is not a good plea in bar of an action 
brought upon such contract. — Sturgess vs. Crouminshield, 4 Wheaton, 122, 197. 

Statutes of limitation and usury laws, unless retroactive in their effect, do not impair the 
obligation of contracts, and are constitutional. — Id., 206. 

A state bankrupt or insolvent law (which not only liberates the person of the debtor, but 
discharges him from all liability for the debt), so far as it attempts to discharge the con- 
tract, is repugnant to the constitution of the United States, and it makes no difference in 
the application of this principle, whether the law was passed before or after the debt was 
contracted.— McMillan vs. McKeill, 4 Wheaton, 209. 

The charter granted by the British crown to the trustees of Dartmouth college, jn New 
Hampshire, in the year 1769, is a contract within the meaning of that clause of the consti- 
tution of the United States (art. i., sect. 10) which declares, that no state shall make any 
law impairing the obligations of contracts. The charter was not dissolved by the revolu- 
tion. — College vs. Woodard, 4 Wheaton, 518. 

An act. of the state legislature of New Hampshire, altering the charter of Dartmouth col- 
lege in a material respect, without the consent of the corporation, is an act impairing the 
obligation of the charter, and is unconstitutional and void. — Id., 518. 

* See laws United States, vol. ii., chap. 109, sect. 12. 

t See laws United States, vol. ii., chap. 109. % Vide amendments, art. xii. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 481 

all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the. choice of the 
president, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the 
vice-president. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the 
senate shall choose from them by ballot the vice-president.*] 

The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors,! and 
the day on which they shall give their votes ; which day shall be the 
same throughout the United States.;}; 

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, 
at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to the office 
of president ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall 
not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a 
resident within the United States. 

In case of the removal of the president from office, or of his death, resig- 
nation,§ or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, 
the same shall devolve on the vice-president, and the Congress may by 
law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both 
of tbe president and vice-president, declaring what officer shall then act 
as president, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be 
removed, or a president shall be elected. || 

The president shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compen- 
sation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period 
for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that 
period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them. 

Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the follow- 
ing oath or affirmation : — " I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that 1 will 
faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to 
the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the 
United States." 

Section 2. The president shall be commander-in-chief of the army and 
navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when 
called into the actual service of the United States ;% he may require the 
opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive depart- 
ments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, 
and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against 
the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, 
to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators present concur ; and 
he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the senate, 
shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of 
the supreme court, and all other officers of the United States, whose ap- 
pointments are not herein otherwise provided for and which shall be es- 

* This clause is annulled. See amendments, art. xii. 

f See laws United States, vol. ii., chap. 104, sect. 1. 

j See laws United States, vol. ii., chap. 109, sect. 2. 

§ See laws United States, vol. ii., chap. 104, sect. 11. 

|| See laws United States, vol. ii., chap. 109, sect. 9; and vol. iii., chap. 403. 

IT The act of the state of Pennsylvania, of the 2Sth March, 1814 (providing, sect. 21 , that 
the officers and privates of the militia of that state neglecting or refusing to serve when 
called into actual service, in pursuance of any order or requisition of the president of the 
United States, shall be liable to the peualties defined in the act of Congress of 28th Febru- 
ary, 1795, chap. 277, or to any penalty which may have been prescribed since the date of 
that act, or which may hereafter be prescribed by any law of the United States, and also 
providing for the trial of such delinquents by a state court-martial, and that a list of the 
delinquents fined by such court should be furnished to the marshal of the United States, 
&c. ; and also to the comptroller of the treasury of the United States, in order that the fur- 
ther proceedings directed to be had thereon by the laws of the United States might be com- 
pleted), is not repugnant to the constitution and laws of the United States. — Houston " S 
Moore, 5 Wheaton, 1. 12. 



482 APPENDIX. 

tablished by. law : but tbe Congress may by law vest the appointment of 
such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the president alone, in the 
courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

The president shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen 
during the recess of the senate, by granting commissions which shall ex- 
pire at the end of their next session. 

Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress informa- 
tion of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such 
measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on extra- 
ordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and in case 
of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, 
he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall re- 
ceive ambassadors and other public ministers ; he shall take care that the 
laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the 
United States. 

Section 4. The president, vice-president and all civil officers of the 
United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and con- 
viction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III. 

Section 1. The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in 
one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from 
time to time ordain and establish.* The judges, both of the supreme and 
inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at 
stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be 
diminished during their continuance in office. f 

Section 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and 
equity, arising under this constitution, the laws of the United States, and 
treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority ; — to all cases 
affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls ; — to all cases 
of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; — to controversies to which the 
United States shall be a party ; — to controversies between two or more 
states ;— between a state and citizens of another state ; — between citizens 
of different states,^ — between citizens of the same state claiming lands 
under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, 
and foreign states, citizens or subjects. § 

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, 
and those in which a state shall be party, the supreme court shall have 
original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the supreme 
court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such 
exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.|| 

* Congress may constitutionally impose upon the judges of the supreme court of the Uni- 
ted States the burden of holding circuit courts. — Stuart vs. Laird, 1 Cranch, 299. 

f See laws of the United States, vol. ii., chap. 20. 

\. A citizen of the District of Columbia is not a citizen of a state within the meaning of 
the constitution of the United States. — Hepburn et at vs. Ellzey, 2 Cranch, 445. 



tar 

137. 

See a restriction of this provision. — Amendments, art. xi. 

|| The appellate jurisdiction of the supreme court of the United States extends to a final 
judgment or decree in any suit in the highest court of law, or equity of a state, where is 
drawn in question the validity of a treaty, &c. — Martin vs. Hunter's lessee, 1 IVheaton, 304. 

Such judgment, &c, may be re-examined by writ of error, in the same manner as if ren- 
dered in a circuit court. — Id. 

If the cause has been once remanded before, and the state court decline or refuse to carry 

Vol 1—2 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 483 

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by 
jury ; and siiGh trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall 
have been committed ; but when not committed within any state, the trial 

into effect the mandate of the supreme court thereon, this court will proceed to a final de- 
cision of the same, and award execution thereon. 

Quere. — Whether this court has authority to issue a mandamus to the state court to en- 
force a former judgment ? — Id., 362. 

If the validity or construction of a treaty of the United States is drawn in question, and 
the decision is against its validity, or the title specially set up by either party under the 
treaty, this court has jurisdiction to ascertain that title, and determine its legal validity, 
and is not confined to the abstract construction of the treaty itself. — Id., 362. 

Quere. — Whether the courts of the United States have jurisdiction of offences at common 
law against the United States ? — United States vs. Coolidge, 1 Wheaton, 415. 

The courts of the United States have exclusive jurisdiction of all seizures made on land 
or water for a breach of the laws of the United States, and any intervention of a state au- 
thority, which by taking the thing seized out of the hands of the United States' officer, 
might obstruct the exercise of this jurisdiction, is illegal. — Slocumvs. Mayberry et al, 2 
Wheaton, 1,9. 

In such a case the court of the United States have cognizance of the seizure, may enforce 
a redelivery of the thing by attachment or other summary process. — Id., 9. 

The question under such a seizure, whether a forfeiture has been actually incurred, be- 
longs exclusively to the courts of the United States, and it depends upon the final decree 
of such courts, whether the seizure is to be deemed rightful or tortuous. — Id., 9, 10. 

If the seizing officer refuse to institute proceedings to ascertain the forfeiture, the district 
court may, on application of the aggrieved party, compel the officer to proceed to adjudica- 
tion, or to abandon the seizure. — Id., 10. 

The jurisdiction of the circuit court of the United States extends to a case between citi- 
zens of Kentucky, claiming lands exceeding the value of five hundred dollars, under differ- 
ent grants, the one issued by the state of Kentucky, and the other by the state of Virginia, 
upon warrants issued by Virginia, and locations founded thereon, prior to the separation of 
Kentucky from Virginia. It is the grant which passes the legal title to the land, and if the 
controversy is founded upon the conflicting grants of different states, the judicial power of 
the courts of the United States extends to the case, whatever may have been the equitable 
title of the parties prior to the grant. — Colson et al vs. Lewis, 2 Wheaton, 377. 

Under the judiciary of 17S9, chap. 20. sect. 25, giving appellate jurisdiction to the supreme 
court of the United States, from the final judgment or decree of the highest court of law or 
equity of a state, in certain cases the writ of error may be directed to any court in which 
the record and judgment on which it is to act may be found ; and if the record has been re- 
mitted by the highest court, &c, to another court of the state, it may be brought by the 
writ of error from that court. — Gelston vs. Hoyt. 3 Wheaton, 246, 303. 

The remedies in the courts of the United States at common law and in equity are to be, 
not according to the practice of state courts, but according to the principles of common law 
and equity as defined in Englaud. This doctrine reconciled with the decisions of the courts 
of Tennessee, permitting an equitable title to be asserted in an action at law. — Robinson vs. 
Campbell, 3 Wheaton, 221. 

Remedies in respect, to real property, are to be pursued according to the lex loci rei sitae 
—Id., 219. 

The courts of the United States have exclusive cognizance of questions of forfeiture upon 
all seizures made under the laws of the United States, and it is not competent for a state 
court to entertain or decide such question of forfeiture. If a sentence of condemnation be 
definitively pronounced by the proper court of the United States, it is conclusive that a for- 
feiture is incurred ; if a sentence of acquittal, it is equally conclusive against the forfeiture, 
and in either case the question can not be again litigated in any common law for ever. — Gel- 
ston vs. Hoyt, 3 Wheaton, 246, 311. 

Where a seizure is made for a supposed forfeiture under a law of the United States, no 
action of trespass lies in any common-law tribunal, until a final decree is pronounced upon 
the proceeding in rem to enforce such forfeiture : for it depends upon the final decreee of 
the court proceeding in rem, whether such seizure is to be deemed rightful or tortuous, and 
the action, if brought before such decree is made, is brought too soon. — Id., 313. 

If a suit be brought against the seizing officer for the supposed trespass while the suit 
for the forfeiture is depending, the fact of such pending may be pleaded in abatement, or as 
a temporary bar of the action. If after a decree of condemnation, then that fact may be 
pleaded as a bar : if after an acquittal with a certificate of reasonable cause of seizure, then 
that may-be pleaded as a bar. If after an acquittal without such certificate, then the officer 
is without any justification for the seizure, and it is definitively settled to be a tortuous act. 
If to an action of trespass in a state court for a seizure, the seizing officer plead the fact of 
forfeiture in his defence withont averring a Us pendens, or a condemnation, or an acquittal, 
with a certificate of reasonable cause of seizure, the plea is bad: for it attempts to put in 
issue the question of forfeiture in a state court. — Id., 314. 

Supposing that the third article of the constitution of the United States which declares, 
that " the judicial power shall extend to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction" 



484 APPENDIX. 

shall be at such place or piaces as the Congress may by law have di- 
rected.* 

Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in 

vested in the United States exclusive jurisdiction of all such cases, and that a murder com- 
mitted in the waters of a state where the tide ebbs and flows, is a case of admiralty and 
maritime jurisdiction ; yet Congress have not, in the Sth section of the act of 1790, chap. 9, 
" for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States,'' so exercised this power, 
as to confer on the courts of the United States jurisdiction over such murder. — United Stales 
vs. Bevans, 3 Wheaton, 336, 3S7. 

Quere. — Whether courts of common law have concurrent jurisdiction with the admiralty 
over murder committed in bays, &c, which are enclosed parts of the sea? — Id., 387. 

The grant to the United States in the constitution of all cases of admiralty and maritime 
jurisdiction, does not extend to a cession of the waters in which those cases may arise, or 
of general jurisdiction over the same. Congress may pass all laws which are necessary for 
giving the most complete effect to the exercise of the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction 
granted to the government of the Union ; but the general jurisdiction over the place subject 
to this grant, adheres to the territory as a portion of territory not yet given away, and the 
residuary powers of legislation still remain in the state. — Id., 389. 

The supreme court of the United States has constitutionally appellate jurisdiction under 
the judiciary act of 1789, chap. 20, sect. 25, from the final judgment or decree of the highest 
court of law or equity of a state having jurisdiction of the subject matter of the suit, where 
is drawn in question the validity of a treaty or statute of, or an authority exercised under, 
the United States, and the decision is against their validity : or where is drawn in question 
the validity of a statute of. or an authority exercised under any state, on the ground of their 
being repugnant iO the constitution, treaties, or laws of the United States, and the decision 
is in favor of such their validity : or of the constitution, or of a treaty, or statute of, or com- 
mission held under the United States, and the decision is against the title, right, privilege, 
or exemption, specially set up or claimed by either party under such clause of the constitu- 
tion, treatj', statute, or commission. — Cohens vs. Virginia, 6 Wheaton, 264, 375. 

It is no objection to the exercise of this appellate jurisdiction, that one of the parties is a 
state, and the other a citizen of that state. — Id. 

The circuit courts of the Union have chancery jurisdiction in every state : they have the 
same chancery powers, and the same rules of decision in equity cases, in all the states. — 
United States vs. Ilouiand, 4 Wheaton, 10S, 115. 

Resolutions of the legislature of Virginia of 1810, upon the proposition from Pennsylvania 
to amend the constitution, so as to provide an impartial tribunal to decide disputes be- 
tween the state and federal judiciaries. — Note to Cohens vs. Virginia. Notes 6 Wheaton, 358. 

Where a cause is brought to this court by writ of error, or appeal from the highest court 
of law, or equity of a state, under the 25th section of the judiciary act of 1789, chap. 20, 
upon the ground that the validity of a statute of the United States was drawn in question, 
and that the decision of the state court was against its validity, &c. or that the validity of 
the statute of a state was drawn in question as repugnant to the constitution of the United 
States, and the decision was in favor of its validity, it must appear from the record, that the 
act of Congress, or the constitutionality of the state law, was drawn in question. — Miller vs. 
Nicholls, 4 Wheaton, 311, 315. 

But it is not required that the record should in terms state a misconstruction of the act 
of Congress, or that it was drawn into question. It is sufficient to give this court jurisdic- 
tion of the cause, that the record should show that an act of Congress was applicable to the 
case. — LL, 315. 

The supreme court of the United States has no jurisdiction under the 25th section of the 
judiciary act of 1789, chap. 20, unless the judgment or decree of the state court be a final 
judgment or decree. A judgment reversing that of an inferior court, and awarding a venire 
facias de novo, is not a final judgment. — Houston vs. Moore, 3 Wheaton, 433. 

By the compact of 1802, settling the boundary line between Virginia and Tennessee, and 
the laws made in pursuance thereof, it is declared that all claims and titles to land derived 
from Virginia, or North Carolina, or Tennessee, which have fallen into the respective states, 
shall remain as secure to the owners thereof, as if derived from the government within whose 
boundary they have fallen, and shall not be prejudiced or affected by the establishment of 
fce line. Where the titles of both the plaintiff and defendant in ejectment were derived 
under grant from Virginia to lands which fell within the limits of Tennessee, it was held 
that a prior settlement right thereto, which would in equity give the party a title, could not 
be asserted as a sufficient title in an action of ejectment brought in the circuit court of Ten- 
nessee. — Robinson vs. Campbell, 3 Wheaton, 212. 

Although the state courts of Tennessee have decided that, under their statutes (declaring 
an elder grant founded on a junior entry to be void), a junior patent, founded on a prior en- 
try, shall prevail at law against a senior patent founded on a junior entry, this doctrine has 
never been extended beyond cases within the express provision of the statute of Tennessee 
and could not apply to titles deriving all their validity from the laws of Virginia, and con- 
firmed by the compact between the two states. — Id., 212. 

* See amendments, art vi. 



CONSTITUTION. OF THE UNITED STATES. 435 

levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid 
and comfort. 

No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two 
witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. 

The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, 
but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture ex- 
cept during the life of the person attainted.* 

ARTICLE IV. 

Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the pub- 
lic acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. f And the 
Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, 
records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.^' 

Section 2. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges 
and immunities of citizens in the several states. 

A person chaiged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who 
shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall on demand of 
the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to 
be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime. 

No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof 
escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation 
therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered 
up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. 

Section 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this 
Union ; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction 
of any other state ; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more 
states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states 
concerned as well as of the Congress. 

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules 
and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the 
United States ; and nothing in this constitution shall be so construed as to 
prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state. 

Section 4. The United States shall guaranty to every state in this 
Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them 
against invasion ; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive 
(when the legislature can not be convened) against domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V. 
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it neces- 
sary, shall propose amendments to this constitution, or, on the application 
of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a conven- 
tion for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all 
intents and purposes, as part of this constitution, when ratified by the legis- 
latures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three 
fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be pro- 
posed by the Congress ; provided that no amendment which may be made 

• See laws of the United States, vol. ii., chap. 36. 

t A judgment of a state court has the same credit, validity, and effect, in every other court 
within the United States, which it had in the court where it was rendered : and whatever 
pleas would be good to a suit thereon in such state, and none others can be pleaded in any 
other court within the United States. — Hampton vs. McConnell, 3 Wheaton, 234. 

The record of a judgment in one state is conclusive evidence in another, although it ap» 
pears that the suit in which it was rendered, was commenced by an attachment of property 
the defendant having afterward appeared and taken defence.— Mayhew vs. Thacher, 6 When 
ton, 129. 

J See laws United States, vol. ii., chap. 38 ; and vol. iii., chap. 409. 



436 



APPENDIX. 



prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any man- 
ner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first arti- 
cle ; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal 
suffrage in the senate.* 

ARTICLE VI. 

All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption 
of this constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this 
constitution, as under the confederation. 

This constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made 
in pursuance thereof ; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, un 
der the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ;f 
and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the con 
stitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.}: 

The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members 
of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both 
of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or 
affirmation, to support this constitution ;§ but no religious test shall ever 
be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United 
States. 

ARTICLE VII. 

The ratification of the conventions of nine states, shall be sufficient for the 
establishment of this constitution between the states so ratifying the same. 
Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present, the 
seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven and of the independence of the United 
States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto 
subscribed our names. 

Go. Washington, 
President, and deputy from Virginia. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
John Langdon, 
Nicholas Gilman. 



VIRGINIA. 
John Blair, 
James Madison, jr. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 

Benjamin Franklin, 
Thomas Mifflin, 
Robert Morris, 
George Clymer, 
Thomas Fitzsimons, 
Jared Ingersoll, 
James Wilson, 
Gouverneur Morris. 
DELAWARE. 
George Reed, 
Gunning Bedford, jr., 
John Dickinson, 
Richard Bassett, 
Jacob Broom. 

MARYLAND. 
James M'Henry, 
Daniel of St. Tho. Jenifer, 
Daniel Carroll. 

William Jackson, Secretary. 
* See ante art. i., sect. 3, clause 1. 

f An act of Congress repugnant to the constitution can not become a law.— Marbury vs. 
Madison, I Cranch, 176. 

| The courts of the United States are bound to take notice of the constitution.— Marbury 
vs. Madison, 1 Cranch, 17S. 

A contemporary exposition of the constitution, practised and acquiesced under for a period 
of years, fixes its construction. — Stuart vs. Laird, I Cranch, 299. 

The government of the Union, though limited in its powers, is supreme within its sphere 
or' action, and its laws, when made in pursuance of the constitution, form the supreme Jaw 
of the land. — McCulloch vs. State of Maryland, 4 Wheaton, 405. 
§ See laws of the United States, vol. ii., chap. 1. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 
Nathaniel Gorham. 
Rufus King. 

CONNECTICUT. 

William Samuel Johnson, 
Rocer Sherman. 

NEW YORK. 
Alexander Hamilton. 

NEW JERSEY. 
William Livingston, 
David Brearley, 
William Paterson, 
Jonathan Dayton. 

Attest 



NORTH CAROLINA. 

William Blount, 
Richard Dobbs Spaight, 
Hugh Williamson. 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

John Rutledge, 
Charles C. Pinckney, 
Charles Pinckney, 
Pierce Butler. 

GEORGIA. 

William Few, 
Abraham Baldwin. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 487 



AMENDMENTS* 

TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, RATIFIED ACCORDING TO 
THE PROVISIONS OF THE FIFTH ARTICLE OF THE FOREGOING CONSTI- 
TUTION. 

Article the first. Congress shall make no law respecting an estab- 
lishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging 
the freedom of speech, or of the press ; or the right of the people peacea- 
bly to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 

Article the second. A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the 
security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall 
not be infringed. 

Article the third. No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in 
any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in a time of war, but in 
a manner to be prescribed by law. 

Article the fourth. The right of the people to be secure in their 
persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and 
seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon prob- 
able cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing 
the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 

Article the fifth. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, 
or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a 
grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the 
militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger ; nor shall 
any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of 
life or limb ; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness 
against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due 
process of law ; nor shall private property be taken for public use, with- 
out just compensation. 

Article the sixth. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall en- 
joy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state 
and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district 
shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the 
nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses 
against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his fa- 
vor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence. 

Article the seventh. In suits at common law, where the value in 
controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be 
preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in 
any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common 
law.f 

Article the eighth. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor exces- 
sive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

* Congress, at its first session, begun and held in the city of New York, on Wednesday, 
the 4th of March, 1789, proposed to the legislatures of the several states twelve amend- 
ments to the constitution, ten of which, only, were adopted. 

f The act of assembly of Maryland, of 1793, chap. 30, incorporating the bank of Colum- 
bia, and giving to the corporal ion a summary process by execution in the nature of an at- 
tachment against its debtors who have, by an express consent in writing, made the bonds, 
bills, or notes, by them drawn or endorsed, negotiable at the bank, is not repugnant to the 
constitution of the United States or of Maryland. — Bank of Columbia vs. OkcLy, 4 Whcaton, 
236, 249. 

But the last provision in the act of incorporation, which gives this summary process to 
the bank, is no part of its corporato franchise acd nay be repealed or altered at pleasure 
by the legislative will. — Id. 245. 



488 APPENDIX. 

Article the ninth. The enumeration in the constitution, of certain 
rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the 
people. 

Article the tenth. The powers not delegated to the United States, 
by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the 
states respectively, or to the people.* 

Article the eleventh.! The judicial power of the United States shall 
not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or 
prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state, 
or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. 

Article the twelfth.J The electors shall meet in their respective 
states, and vote by ballot for president and vice-president, one of whom, 
at least, shall not be an inhabitant, of the same state with themselves ; they 
shall name in their ballots the person voted for as president, and in distinct 
ballots the person voted for as vice-president, and they shall make distinct 
lists of all persons voted for as president, and of all persons voted for as 
vice-president, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall 
sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the 
United States, directed to the president of the senate ;^ — the president of 
the senate shall, in the presence of the senate and house of representa- 
tives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted ; — the 
person having the greatest number of votes for president, shall be the pres- 
ident, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors ap- 
pointed ; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons hav- 
ing the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for 
as president, the house of representatives shall choose immediately, by 
ballot, the president. But in choosing the president, the votes shall be 
taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote ; a 
quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two 

* The powers granted to Congress are not exclusive of similar powers existing in the 
states, unless where the constitution has expressly in terms given an exclusive power to 
Congress, or the exercise of a like power is prohibited to the states, or there is a direct re- 
pugnancy or incompatibility in the exercise of it by the states. — Houston vs. Moore, 5 Whea- 
ton, I, 12. 

The example of the first class is to be found in the exclusive legislation delegated to Con- 
gress over places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same 
shall be for forts, arsenals, dockyards, &c. Of the second class, the prohibition of a state 
to coin money or emit bills of credit. Of the third class, the power to establish a uniform 
rule of naturalization, and the delegation of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. — Id... 49. 

In all other classes of cases, the states retain concurrent authority with Congress. — Id. 49. 

But in cases of concurrent authority, where the laws of the states and the Union are in 
direct and manifest collision on the same subject, those of the Union being the supreme law 
of the land are of paramount authority, and the state laws so far, and so tar only as such 
incompatibility exists, must necessarily yield. — Id., 49. 

There is nothing in the constitution of the United States similar to the articles of confed- 
eration, which excludes incidental or implied powers. — McCulloch vs. tita!e of Maryland, 4 
Whcaton, 406. 

Jf the end be legitimate, and within the scope of the constitution, all the means which are 
appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, and which are not prohibited, may con- 
stitutionally be employed to carry it into effect. — Id., 421. 

The act of Congress of 4th May, 1S12, entitled, " An act further to amend the charter of 
the city of Washington/' which provides (sect. 6) that the corporation of the city shall be 
empowered for certain purposes and under certain restrictions, to authorize the drawing of 
lotteries, does not extend to authorize the corporation to force the sale of the tickets in such 
lottery in states where such sale may be prohibited by the state laws. — Cohens vs. Virginia 
6 Wkeaton, 264, 375. ' 

f This amendment was proposed at the first session of the third Congress. See ante art. 
iii., sect. 2, clause 1. 

% Proposed at the first session of the eighth Congress. See ante art. ii., sect. 1, clause 3 
Annulled by this amendment. 

§ See laws of the United States, vol. ii., chap. 109, sect. 5. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 489 

thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to 
a choice. And if the house of representatives shall not choose a presi 
dent whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the 
fourth day of March next following, then the vice-president shall act as 
president, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of 
the president. The person having, the greatest number of votes as vice- 
president, shall be the vice-president, if such number be a majority of the 
whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then 
from the two highest numbers on the list, the senate shall choose the vice- 
president ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole 
number of senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary 
to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of pres- 
ident shall be eligible to that of vice-president of the United States. 

Note. — Another amendment was proposed as article xiii., at the second session of the 
eleventh Congress, but not having been ratified by a sufficient number of states, has not yet 
become valid as a part of the constitution of the United States. It is erroneously given as 
a part of the constitution, in page 74, vol i., laws of the United States. 



I have examined and compared the foregoing print of the constitution of the United States, 
and the amendments thereto, with the rolls in this office, and fintl it a faithful and literal 
copy of the said constitution and amendments, in the text and punctuation thereof. It ap- 
pears that the first ten amendments, which were proposed at the first session of the fir^t 
Congress of the United States, were finally ratified by the constitutional number of states, 
on the 15th day of December, 1791 ; that the eleventh amendment, which was proposed at 
the first session of the third Congress, was declared, in a message from the president of the 
United States to both houses of Congress, dated Sth January, 1798, to have been adopted by 
three fourths, the constitutional number of states ; and that the twelfth amendment, which 
was proposed at the first session of the eighth Congress, was adopted by three fourths, the 
constitutional number of states, in the year one thousand eight hundred and four, according 
to a public notice thereof, by the secretary of state, under date the 25th of September, of the 
same year. 

Daniel Brent, Chief Clerk. 

Department of State, Washington, 25th Feb., 1828. 

%* For history of the formation of the constitution, the declaration of independence, and 
the articles of confederation, see vol. ii., end of the messages. 



DEPARTURE OF THE FRENCH ARMY FROM AMERICA. 

We omitted to mention in the proper place, the departure of Rochambeau and 
his troops from America. They remained in Virginia until the summer of 1782, 
when they joined Washington and his army on the Hudson. Active hostilities 
having ceased, and Savannah and Charleston having been evacuated by the 
British, Rochambeau, complying with the instructions of his government, em- 
barked his troops from Boston, early in December, for St. Domingo, under M. de 
Vandreuil. Himself and many officers and their respective staffs, returned to the 
Chesapeake, whence they embarked for France. As we have before noticed, the 
order and discipline of the French army was remarkable, and during their final 
march, they received congratulatory addresses at almost every place. At 
Philadelphia, a deputation of Quakers waited upon Rochambeau, and one of 
them, as orator, said : " General, it is not on account of thy military qualities that 
we make thee this visit — those we hold in little esteem ;. but thou art the friend 
of mankind, and thy army conducts itself with the utmost order and discipline. 
It is this which induces us to render thee our respects." 

32 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Abercrombie, General, preceded Lord 
Loudon, 38 ; appointed Commander- 
in-Chief, 40 

Acadia, its locality ; subdued by the 
English, restored to France, 28 

Act of British Parliament, the first, 
for taxing the Colonies, proposed in 
1764, 55 ; 
Stamp, proposed, 55 ; passed, GO ; re- 
pealed, 74 ; 
Mutiny, oppressive clause in, resisted 

by the Colonies, 75 ; 
A new one, for taxing the Colonies 
proposed by Townshend and passed 
(1767), 77; 
Establishing a Board of Trade in the 

Colonies, passed, ib. ; 
Prohibiting New York Assembly from 

passing laws, ib. ; 
Shutting up the port of Boston, 117 ; 
Altering charter of Massachusetts, ib. ; 
Providing for sending criminals to Eng- 
land for trial, 118 

Adams, John, declines office under Gov. 
Bernard, 81 ; defends the cause of 
Capt. Preston and other soldiers 
before the court at Boston, 97 ; ap- 
pointed Minister to Great Britain, 
299 ; Commissioner to negotiate for 
peace, 354 

Adams, Samuel, rejects the offers of 
Governors Bernard and Hutchinson, 
81 ; demands and obtains from the 
Governor the removal of British 
troops from Boston, 96 

Administration, British ; changes in 
(1763), 54; (1765), 71; (1766), 76; 
(1768), S3, (1770), 98; (17S3), 353, 
354 

Allen, Ethan, plans an expedition 
against Ticonderoga, 159 ; captures 
that fortress, Crown Point, and 
Skenesborough, 159-60; attempts to 
take Montreal, 174; is defeated, 
taken prisoner, and sent to England 
in irons, ib. 

Amherst, General, At Ticonderoga, pur- 
sues the French ; returns to Crown 
Point, 42 



Andre, Major John (Adjutant-General of 
the British army), negotiates with 
Gen. Arnold for the surrender of 
West Point, 316 ; his interview with 
Arnold, 319; is arrested on his re- 
turn to New York, 320 ; tried, and 
executed as a spy, 323 ; his unhappy 
fate lamented, 324 ; notice of his 
early life and character, ib. 

Armed Neutrality, confederacy so called, 
formed, 325 ; parties to, and contin- 
uation of, ib. 

Army, American, organized by Provin- 
cial Congress of Massachusetts, 153 ; 
Continental organized by Congress, 
163 ; Washington appointed Com- 
mander in chief, 164 ; other Gene- 
rals appointed, ib. ; number and 
condition of, at New York, 200, 208 ; 
destitute condition of, in New Jer- 
sey, 221 ; small pox at Morristown, 
222 ; inoculation of the troops, ib. ; 
march from Morristown, 224 ; in- 
creased number of, ib. ; in full pos- 
' session of New Jersey, 225. (See 
Continental Army.) 

Army, British, dispersed to their homes, 
38 ; British troops introduced into 
Boston, 80 ; augmentation of, in 
America, 147, 167, 183 ; German 
troops employed, 183 ; arrival of, at 
New York, 200 ; number and condi- 
tion of, ib. ; land on Long Island, 
202 ; enter city of New York, 206 ; 
pass up the East River, 207 ; number 
and condition of, 208 ; pursue 4he 
Americans across New Jersey, 209 ; 
various operations of, 211, 212#220, 
221, 222, 223, 225, 226, 227, 22S, 
229, 230 ; number of, embarked at 
New York for Philadelphia, 225 ; 
Northern Division of, under General 
Burgoyne, account of operations, 233 
to 240 ; entire surrender and disper- 
sion of, 243 ; division under Howe 
at Philadelphia, conduct of, in that 
city, 259, 260 ; Gen. Howe succeed- 
ed in command by Sir Henry Clin- 
ton, 259 : evacuate Philadelphia, 
260 ; pursued by Americans, ib. ; 



492 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Army, British — 

number of, in 1778, 260 ; after battle 
of Monmouth, British retreat to 
New York, greatly reduced in num- 
bers, 262 ; defence of Rhode Island, 
263 ; conquest of Georgia, 268 ; sta- 
tions of, in 1779, 281 ; operations at 
the South, ib. ; brutal conduct of the 
soldiers, 285; expedition against 
Virginia, ib. ; defence of Savannah, 
292 ; operations at the South, 304 ; 
siege and capture of Charleston and 
the American army under Gen. Lin- 
coln, 305, 306 ; operations of, at the 
South, in 1780, 307-311; in 1781, 
331-340 ; surrender of, at Yorktown, 
344 ; situation of, at the close of 
the campaign of 1781, 347 ; evacuate 
the cities held by them in the 
United States, 356 
Army, French, arrive in the United 
States (at Newport), 313 ; number 
of, ib. ; go into winter quarters, 
314 ; join the Americans, ib. ; march 
for Virginia, 342 ; action of, at York- 
town, 343 ; canton at Williams- 
burg, 347 ; return to France, 489 
Arnold, Benedict, appointed Colonel in 
the Provincial Army by Massachu- 
setts, 159; proceeds against Ticon- 
deroga, ib. ; co-operates with Ethan 
Allen in the capture of Ticonderoga, 
Crown Point, and Skenesborough, 
159, 160 ; captures an English cor- 
vette on Lake Champlain, 160 ; com- 
mands an expedition to Canada, 174 ; 
arrives on the St. Lawrence, ib. ; 
ascends the heights 'of Abraham, 
175 ; is joined by Montgomery, ib. ; 
they march upon Quebec, ib. ; Ar- 
nold enters the town and takes a 
battery, 176 ; is wounded, and re- 
treats with his men, ib. ; maintains 
his position near Quebec, ib. ; 
American army evacuate Canada, 
177 ; appointed Brigadier General, 
213 ; commands a squadron on Lake 
Champlain, ib. ; fights a naval battle 
on the Lake, is defeated, and burns 
his vessels, 215, 216; commands 
American troops at Ridgefield, Conn., 
223; his gallant exploits and 
• fight with the English troops under 
Tryon, ib. ; Congress presents him 
•vith ahorse, ib. ; takes command of 
troops on the Delaware, 224 ; joins 
the northern army under Gen. Gates, 
237 ; leads a detachment of the 
army at the battle of Stillwater, ib ; 
•his gallant conduct in the second 
battle, 239 ; is included in the vote 
of thanks by Congress, 244 ; com- 
mands a detachment of the army, 
and takes possession of Philadelphia, 
260 ; Washington appoints him mili- 
tary governor of Philadelphia, ib. ; 
his operations in Philadelphia, 314 ; 



Arnold, Benedict — 

his marriage and extravagance, ib. ; 
charges against him laid before Con- 
gress, and referred to a court of 
inquiry, 315 ; his sentence, repri- 
mand, and disaffection, ib. ; his 
schemes to retrieve his fortunes, ib. ; 
Washington appoints him command- 
er at West Point, 316 ; forms a plan 
to betray his country, by delivering 
. that fortress to the British, ib. ; 
opens negotiations with Sir Henry 
Clinton, ib. ; his interview and con- 
ference with Major Andre', 319; es- 
capes on hearing of the arrest of 
Andre, 323 ; unsuccessful attempt 
to capture him at New York, ib. ; 
appointed Brig. Gen. in the British 
Army, 324 ; his expedition against 
Virginia, 329 ; failure of attempt to 
capture him and his army in Vir- 
ginia, 330 ; is joined by Gen. Phillips 
with reinforcement, ib. ; overruns 
the country, destroys much pro- 
perty, and returns to Petersburg, 
ib. ; his forces joined by those of 
Cornwallis, 340 ; is sent by Sir H. 
Clinton on an expedition to Con- 
necticut, burns New London, cap- 
tures the forts, and returns to New 
York, 343 

Associations formed in the Colonies, 
against the Stamp Act, 6S ; against 
importing British goods, 68, 78 ; to 
encourage Domestic manufactures, 
68, 78 

B. 

Barre, Col., opposes the Stamp Act, 59; 
his portrait, with Conway's, ordered 
in Boston, 64 ; predicts the loss of 
the Colonies to Great Britain (in 
1769), 85; advocates repeal of tea 
duty, 99 ; opposes bills against Mas- 
sachusetts, 117, 118; his censure of 
Lord North, 149 

Barton, Col., captures Gen. Prescott, 
226 ; Congress presents him with a 
sword, ib. 

Battle on the plains of Abraham, 44 ; of 
Lexington, 151; effect of, 153; of 
Bunker Hill, 169 ; of Long Island, 
202; at Harlem heights, 207; of 
White Plains, 208 ; of Fort Wash- 
ington, ib. ; of Trenton, 211, 212; 
of Princeton, 220 ; of Ridgefield, 223 ; 
naval, on Lake Champlain, 215; at 
Springfield and Somerset, New Jer- 
sey, 221 ; of Brandywine, 227 ; of 
Paoli, 229; of Germantown, 229; at 
Red Bank, 229 ; of Whitemarsh, 230 ; 
of Hubbardton, 234 ; of Bennington, 
236 ; of the Mohawk, ib. ; of Fort 
Schuyler, 182, 237; battle of Still- 
water, 237 ; second battle of Still- 
water, 239 ; battle of Monmouth, 
201 ; of Rhode Island, 263 ; of Sa- 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



493 



Battle— 

vannah, 268 ; of Port Royal, 2S2 ; of 
Briar Creek, 283 ; of Stony Point, 
288 ; ■ attack on Savannah, 291 ; of 
Monks' Corner, 305 ; at Santee River, 
ib. ; siege and capture of Charleston 
and Lincoln's army, 305, 306 ; bat- 
tles of Rocky Mount and Hanging 
Rock 307 ; of Sanders's Creek and 
death of De Kalb, 308 ; of the Wa- 
teree, 309; of Broad River, 311 ; of 
Blackstock, ib. ; of Springfield, 
N. J., 313; of the Cowpens, 331; 
of Guilford, C. H., 334; of Hob- 
kirk's Hill, near Camden, 335; of 
Eutaw Springs, 339 ; of Yorktown, 
3-13 

Bernard, Governor, dissolves the Massa- 
chusetts Assembly, 79 ; his removal 
by the King petitioned for, 79 ; in- 
troduces British troops into Boston, 
SO ; refuses to convene the Assembly, 
81 ; dtmands of the Assembly funds 
to pay British troops, 85 ; his de- 
mand refused, ib. ; dissolves the As- 
sembly, ib. ; is created a Baronet by 
the King, ib. ; returns to England 
and is succeeded by Hutchinson, ib 

Board of War, instituted, 254; Gen. 
Gates placed at the head, ib. ; plan 
an expedition to Canada, ib. 

Boston, freeholders of, pass votes of 
thanks to Bane and Conway for 
their opposition to the Stamp Act, 
63, 64 ; mob and riots on account of 
the Stamp Act, at, 66 ; further pro- 
ceedings at, 68 ; people oppose the 
payment of duties, 79 ; British troops 
introduced, 80 ; town meeting called 
in consequence, ib. ; petition of peo- 
ple of, rejected in Parliament, 83 ; 
opposition of the people to revenue 
acts, 91 ; a boy named Snyder shot 
in an affair respecting importation 
of tea, ib. ; funeral of the boy Sny- 
der (called the first martyr to the 
cause of American Liberty), 92 ; 
massacre of citizens by British 
troops, ib. ; arrest of Capt. Preston, 
95 ; is acquitted, 98 ; funeral of the 
citizens killed, 97 ; troops' removed 
from, ib. ; arrival of cargoes of tea 
at, 107 ; public meetings and excite- 
ment, 10S ; destruction of tea in the 
harbor, 111; port bill, passed, 115, 
117; Lord North's remarks on the 
people of, 115; port bill, how re- 
ceived in the Colonies* 122; troops 
introduced into, by Gen. Gage, 125; 
port closed and consequent distress, 
ib. ; fortifications at the Neck com- 
menced by Gen. Gage, 127 ; block- 
ade of, 154 ; siege of, by Americans, 
188 ; evacuation of, by the British 
and Tories, 190 
Boundaries of the U. S. fixed by the 
Treaty of 17S3, 355 



Braddock, General, arrives from Ire- 
land — his authority — his expedition 
against the Frenclv — his death, 35 

Brandywine, Battle of, 227 

Breed's Hill occupied and fortified by 
Americans, 167 

British Commissioners (appointed in 
1778), arrive in Philadelphia and 
make proposals for peace which are 
rejected by Congress, 257 ; offer 
bribes to members of Congress, pub- 
lish addresses to the people, without 
effect and return to England, 258 

British Cabinet, changes in, viz. Gren- 
ville, premier, 54 ; Rockingham, pre- 
mier, 71 ; Pitt, Earl of Chatham, 
forms a Cabinet, 76; Duke of Grafton, 
'head of ministry, 83 ; Lord North, 
minister, 98; resigns, 353; Rock- 
ingham, Premier, 354 ; dies, ib. ; 
Lord Shelburne, premier, ib. 
Laws respecting Colonies, 53 ; Naviga- 
tion Act, ib. 
Manufactures, Americans resolve not 
to import, 68, 78, 82, 83 ; manufac- 
turers and others petition Parlia- 
ment in fav.or of Colonies, 140 
Parliament, ignorant of American cha- 
racter, 59, 77 ; authority of, to bind 
the Colonies asserted, on repeal of 
Stamp Act, 74 ; denied in America, 
78 ; proceedings in, against Colonies, 
83 ; right of, to tax Colonies, denied 
• by the people of New York, 84 ; re- 
fuse to repeal the tea duty, 99 ; ac- 
tion of, on Boston tea riot, 114; 
debates on Boston port bill, 115; 
passage of same, 117; action of, on 
American affairs in 1774, 140, 145; 
refuse to receive the petition of 
Congress, 146 ; proceedings in 
(1775), 181 ; debates in 1776, on em- 
ploying Germans, 186 ; vote large 
supplies for the army and issue let- 
ters of marque, 222 ; effect of Bur- 
goyne's surrender on, 244; Commit- 
tee appointed to inquire into the 
state of the nation, ib. ; proceedings 
in, 255 ; last speech and death of the 
Earl of Chatham, 257 ; war with 
France takes place in consequence 
of the alliance between France and 
America, 256 ; ministers make con- 
cessions in favor of America, ib. ; 
Commissioners sent to America with 
proposals for peace, ib. ; American 
Independence advocated by the op- 
position, ib. ; proceedings in, on 
reception of notice of the French 
treaty with America, 273 ; reception 
of the news of the disasters in Ame- 
rica (1781), violent debates and cen- 
sure of minister, 348 

Bunker Hill, battle of, 169 

Burgoyne, Gen., arrives at Boston with 
the British army, 167 ; supersedes 
Gov. Carleton in command of the 



494 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Burgoyne, General — 

forces in Canada, 233 ; plan of his 
operations, ib. ; forces under his 
command, ib. ; list of generals in his 
army, 234 ; gives a war-feast to the 
Indians and issues proclamation to 
the Americans, 234 ; captures Ti- 
conderoga, ib. ; pursues the Ameri- 
cans to Fort Edward, 234, 235 ; dif- 
ficulties encountered in his march, 
235 ; sends a detachment to Benning- 
ton, which is defeated by the Ameri- 
cans under General Stark, 236 ; he 
crosses the Hudson river, and en- 
camps on the heights of Saratoga, 
237 ; his army is attacked by the 
•Americans, ib. ; distressing situation 
of his troops, ib.; after a second bat- 
tle he retreats a few miles to the 
north, 239 ; has his retreat to Fort 
Edward cut off, and is compelled to 
surrender, with his army, to the 
Americans under Gen. Gates, 240 ; 
his letter to Lord George Germaine, 
ib.; his army retained in America as 
prisoners until the close of the war, 
325. 

Burke, Edmund, in the Rockingham 
cabinet, 71 ; advocates a repeal of the 
Stamp Act, 74 ; describes the Chat- 
ham cabinet, 76 ; denounces the mea- 
sures of government against the colo- 
nies, 83 ; moves resolutions against 
measures of ministers, 99 ; oppdses 
Massachusetts bill, 117 ; sustains 
proposition to repeal the Tea duty, 
119; opposes the Canada bill, 120; 
offers a plan of conciliation which is 
rejected by Parliament, 149 ; pro- 
poses another plan of conciliation, 
1S2 ; his sarcasm on Lord North, 256. 

Burr, Aaron, accompanies Arnold in his 
expedition to Canada, 176 ; bears 
the body of Gen. Montgomery from 
the field before Quebec, ib. 

C. 

Camden, S. C, battle near, at Sanders's 
Creek, and defeat of Gen. Gates, 30S ; 
baftle near, at Hobkirk's Hill, 335 

Canada, English propose to wrest it 
from the French, 27 ; expeditions 
against it in 1704 and 1707, 28 ; its 
subjugation by the British, 46 ; libe- 
ral concessions to the people of, 120 ; 
religious division of the population 
(note), ib.; expedition to, 173 ; an- 
other expedition planned, 254 ; de- 
tails of the plan stated, 274 ; French 
aid expected, 275 ; designs of the 
French exposed by Washington, in a 
letter to Congress, opposing the en- 
terprise, ib. ; scheme abandoned by 
Congress, ib. 

Cape Breton, retained by France — its 
fortifications, 29 ; restored to France, 
30 ; surrenders to the English, 40. 



Carleton, Sir Guy, governor of Canada, 
173 ; his operations for defence of 
the province, ib.; retreats down the 
St. Lawrence to Quebec, 174; nar- 
row escape of, from Arnold's troops, 
175; receives reinforcements and 
defeats the Americans, 177 ; is super- 
seded by Gen. Burgoyne, 233 ; suc- 
ceeds Sir Henry Clinton in command 
.of the British forces in America, and 
arrives at New York, 353 

Carr, Dabney, of Virginia, proposes to 
appoint committees of correspond- 
ence in the Colonies, 104 

Champe, Sergeant, his unsuccessful at- 
tempt to abduct the traitor Arnold, 
323 

Champlain Lake, operations on, 173, 
215; battle on, 215, 216 

Charleston, S. C, summoned to surren- 
der by Gen. Prescott, 284 ; British 
troops withdraw from the siege, ib.; 
siege and capture of, by^ir Henry 
Clinton and Admiral Arbuthnot, 
305, 306 ; British take possession of, 
306 

Charlestown (Mass.), burned by the 
British, 168 

Chatham, Earl of, William Pitt created, 
76 ; cabinet formed by him, ib.; pro- 
poses an address to the King to re- 
move the troops from Boston, 144 ; 
his remarks on the subject, ib.; pre- 
sents a bill for settlement of the colo- 
nial troubles, which is rejected, 145 ; 
submits his plan to Franklin, ib.; 
his remarks on employing German 
troops, 222 ; his remarks on the de- 
feat of Burgoyne's expedition, 244 ; 
moves for a cessation of hostilities, 
ib.; his remarks on American affairs, 
255 ; his last speech in the House 
of Lords (being against the acknow- 
ledgment of American independ- 
ence), 257 ; his death, ib. 

Cherry Valley, attack upon, by Tories 
and Indians, 267 

Clergy of JVew England zealous in 
the cause of Independence, 135 

Clinton, Gen., Sir Henry, arrives at 
Boston with the army, 167 ; is at the 
Battle of Bunker Hill, 169 ; arrives 
oft' the coast of Carolina, 192 ; attacks 
Fort Moultrie, near Charleston, and 
is defeated, ib. ; joins Howe at New 
York, 193 ; is left by Howe in de- 
fence of New York, 244 ; promises 
to attempt a junction with Burgoyne, 
who anxiously waits for him, 238 : 
moves from New York up the Hud- 
son, ten days before the surrender of 
Burgoyne, 244 ; captures Forts Mont- 
gomery and Clinton, 245 ; leads the 
British grenadiers to the assault, 246 ; 
dismantles the forts and returns to 
New York, 247 ; succeeds General 
Howe in command of the British 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



495 



Clinton, General, Sir Henry — 

army, 259 ; evacuates Philadelphia, 

260 ; pursued by Washington, ib. ; 
fights the Americans at Monmouth, 

261 ; retreats to New York, 262 ; 
marches for Rhode Island, 263 ; re- 
turns to New York, after detaching 
Gen. Grey on a predatory expedition, 
ib. ; changes the plan of operations, 
and sends a detachment to the south, 
26S ; success of the expedition to 
Georgia, ib. ; captures Forts at Ver- 
planck's and Stony Point, 2S6 ; ap- 
prehensive of an attack on New 
York, he orders an evacuation of 
Rhode Island, Stony Point, and Ver- 
plank's Point, and concentrates his 
forces at New York, 291 ; leaves 
Gen. Knyphausen in command at 
New York, and departs with an army 
for Savannah, 292, 303 ; disasters of 
the voyage, 304 ; recruits at Savan- 
nah, ib. ; besieges Charleston, ib. ; 
attacks the town from the ships and 
batteries, 305; receives a large re- 
inforcement, ib. ; Gen. Lincoln and 
the American army surrender as 
prisoners of war, and the British 
take possession of Charleston, 306 ; 
receives assistance from the tories, 
issues a proclamation to the people, 
and re-establishes the royal govern- 
ment in South Carolina, 307 ; leaves 
Cornwallis in command and returns 
to New York, ib. ; accompanies Gen. 
Knyphausen on an expedition into 
New Jersey, and defeats the Ameri- 
cans under Greene, 313 ; negotiates 
with Gen. Arnold for the surrender 
of West Point, 316; endeavors to 
save Major Andre, after his capture, 
323 ; sends emissaries to the leaders 
of the revolted American troops, but 
his offers are rejected, 32S ; sends 
troops to Virginia, under Gen'ls Ar- 
nold and Phillips, 330 ; his instruc- 
tions to Lord Cornwallis, 340 ; re- 
ceives reinforcements at New York, 
342 ; sends Arnold on an expedition 
to Connecticut, ib. ; fatal effects of 
his (Clinton's) tardy movements on 
the British cause in America, 347 ; 
sails for Virginia with large rein- 
forcements for Cornwallis, but is too 
late, and returns to New York, ib. ; 
is succeeded in command by Sir Guy 
Carleton, 353 

Cockade, adopted by Americans in com- 
pliment to the French, 312 

Colonial Assemblies declare by resolu- 
tion the exclusive right of the peo- 
ple to tax themselves, 85 ; deny the 
right of the King to remove offend- 
ers to England for trial, ib. ; dis- 
solved by the Governors, ib. 

Colonics, concessions to them, 29 ; pros- 
perity of, 49 ; public feeling in (1770), 



Colonies — 

89; sympathy of, with Boston and 
Massachusetts, 122, 127; popular 
commotions in, 129; public feeling 
in, after Battle of Lexington, 154 

Commissioner, sent by Virginia to confer 
with the French — delicacy of his 
duties, 32. 

Committee of Correspondence, appoint- 
ed in New York (1764), 64 

Committee of Correspondence, recom- 
mended in Virginia (1773), 104; in- 
vention of, claimed by Massachusetts, 
ib. ; attributed to Dr. Franklin, ib. ; 
beneficial effects of, 105 

Confederation, articles of, considered by 
Congress, 179; adopted, 246; revisal 
of, recommended by Congress, 362 

Congress of Commissioners, at Albany, 
in 1754, 34 ; adopt a plan of general 
government, rejected by Great Bri- 
tain and Colonies, 34 
At New York, in 1765, proposed by 
Committee of N. Y. Assembly, 64 ; 
invited by circular of Massachusetts 
Assembly, ib. 
Meeting of first Colonial (Oct., 1765), 
65 ; list of Delegates, 66 ; proceed- 
ings of, ib. 
First Continental, at Philadelphia 
(1774), recommended by Virginia, 
123; by Massachusetts, 124; dele- 
gates appointed, ib. ; meeting of de- 
legates, 131 : their character and 
proceedings, 131, 134; Pitt's opinion 
of, 132 ; provide for a new Congress 
and adjourn, 135 (see appendix) 
Second Continental, meet at Philadel- 
phia, 1775, 160; their proceedings, 
ib. ; organize a continental army, 
163; issue paper money, 163-179; 
consider a plan for confederation, 
179 ; appoint a committee to prepare 
Declaration of Independence, 195; 
same, adopted and signed by mem- 
bers, 196; appoint a committee of 
conference to meet Lord Howe, 204 ; 
unsuccessful result, 205 ; adjourn to 
Baltimore, 210; adjourn from Phila- 
delphia to Lancaster, 229; adopt ar- 
ticles of confederation, 248 ; ratifies 
treaty with France, 25S ; issue a pro- 
clamation respecting the French 
treaty, 258 ; arrange an expedition 
against Canada, 254, 274 ; scheme 
opposed by Washington, 275; con- 
ference with Washington on the 
subject, and abandonment of the en- 
terprise, 276 ; dissensions and neg- 
lect of attendance of members, ib. ; 
deficiency of talent (in 177S), ib. ; 
elect ministers to Europe, 299 ; recall 
Silas Deane, 300 ; members accused 
of a want of patriotism and integrity 
in a letter alleged to have been 
written by their president, Mr. Lau- 
rens, and published by Rivington, 



496 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Congress, Second Continental — 

301 ; party spirit and dissensions in, 
299, 305 ; reception of the news of 
the victory at Yorktown, 347 ; mem- 
bers offer up thanks at Church, and 
appoint a day for public thanks- 
giving throughout the Union, 347 ; 
ratify the treaty of peace, 355 ; im- 
potency of the confederation, 362; 
pass resolutions recommending a 
convention to revise the articles of 
confederation, 362 

Congress, Provincial, formed in Massa- 
chusetts, 128; measures adopted by, 
ib.; formed in other Colonies, 137, 155 

Connecticut, people of, oppose Stamp 
Act, 71 ; sustains Massachusetts with 
an army, 153 ; British expedition to, 
under Tryon, 222 ; Danbury burnt, 
223; Tryon's second expedition, 
286 ; Fairfield and Norwalk burnt, 
and property at New Haven de- 
stroyed, 287 

Conspiracy, to supersede Washington, 
253 ; of General Arnold, with Sir 
Henry Clinton, to surrender forts at 
West Point, 314. 

Constitution, formation and adoption of, 
363 ; organization of the govern- 
ment, 364 

Continental Army, proposed by John 
Adams, organized by Congress, 163 ; 
Washington appointed Commander- 
in-chief, 164 ; other generals ap- 
pointed, ib ; deplorable condition 
of, ISO ; reinforced and organized, 
ib. ; enter Boston, 190 ; march to 
New York, 191 ; number of at New 
York, 200 ; exploits of, at Trenton, 
212 ; at Princeton, 220 ; destitute 
condition of, 221 ; encamp at Mor- 
ristown, ib. ; small-pox breaks out 
among the troops, 222 ; inoculation 
checks its progress, ib ; march from 
Morristown to Middlebrook, N. J., 
224 ; increased number of, ib. ; in 
full possession of New Jersey, 225 ; 
march to Germantown, Penn., and 
thence to Brandywine, Del., where 
an action with the British takes 
place, 227 ; number of, engaged at 
Brandywine, 228; retreat to Phila- 
delphia, ib. ; abandon Philadelphia, 
and take post at Pottsgrove, 229 ; 
attack the British at Germantown, 
ib. ; go into winter-quarters at 
Valley Forge, 230 ; their extreme 
hardships and suffering, 230, 252 ; 
operations of the northern division, 
233 ; successful termination of the 
campaign by the capture of Bur- 
goyne and his army, 240 ; number of 
troops at Valley Forge, and in the 
field, 251, 260; march to New 
Jersey in pursuit of the British 
army, 260 ; attack that army under 
Generals Clinton and Cornwallis, at 



Continental Army — 

Monmouth CouTt-House, 261 ; se- 
vere contest and retreat of the Bri- 
tish army to New York, 261, 262 ; 
Americans cross the Hudson and 
encamp at White Plains, 262; go 
into winter-quarters at Middlebrook, 
N. J., ib. ; a detachment of, besiege 
the town of Newport, R. I., 263; 
various encampments of in winter- 
quarters, 267 ; recruiting service and 
bounties, 281 ; opening of campaign 
of 1779 at the south, ib. ; operations 
and movements of General Lincoln, 
282, 283, 284, 291, 293 ; storming of 
Stony Point by Wayne, 2SS ; Sulli- 
van's expedition against the Indians, 
292 ; termination of the campaign 
of 1779, 296; main division of the 
army go into winter-quarters at Mor- 
ristown, ib. ; other stations, ib. ; 
reinforcements sent to General Lin- 
coln's army at the south, ib. ; scar- 
city of provisions in the main army, 
ib. ; supplies demanded and obtain- 
ed from New Jersey, 299 ; opera- 
tions at the south, 305 to 311 ; 
surrender of General Lincoln's army, 
at Charleston, 306 ; defeat of Gene- 
ral Gates in Carolina, 308 ; General 
Gates superseded in command by 
General Greene, 311 ; distress of, at 
the north, under Washington, 311 ; 
affair at Springfield, N. J., 313; 
number of, in the campaign of 1730, 
ib. ; revolt of Pennsylvania and New 
' Jersey lines quelled, 328, 329 ; mu- 
tineers reject the oilers of Sir Henry 
Clinton, 328; operations at the 
south, 331 to 340; junction of the 
army at the north with the French 
army, 341 ; march of the combined 
armies to Virginia, 342; reinforce- 
ment sent to General Greene, and 
the main body of the American ar- 
my returns to New Jersey, 347 ; 
disbanded on the conclusion of peace, 
355 ; discontent of the soldiers, 356 ; 
Newburgh Address to, 357 ; prudence 
and influence of Washington, 358 
Continental Money ; first issue of, 163 ; 
repeated issues of, 2S0 ; specimen of 
bills, 1S3 ; great depreciation of in 
value, 280 ; efforts of Congress to 
sustain the credit of, ib. 
Convention, held at Albany; adopt a 
plan of government, its plan reject- 
ed by the Colonies and the Crown, 
34 ; to form a constitution, 362 ; pro- 
ceedings of, 363 
Council of Governor of province, at Al- 
bany, 38 
Conway, General, opposes the Stamp 
Act, 63 ; his portrait ordered for 
Faneuil Hall, 64 ; member of the 
Rockingham Cabinet, 71 ; advocates 
repeal of Tea Duties, 99 ; moves for 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



497 



Conway, General — 

an address to the king in favor of 
peace, 353 
Conway, General (Brigadier in the Con- 
tinental army), his conspiracy with 
Gates and Mifflin against Washing- 
ton, 253 ; Inspector-General of the 
army, 254 ; writes Washington, and 
expresses regret for his conduct, ib. ; 
resigns his commission and returns 
to Europe, 254 
Cornwallis, Lord, arrives on the coast 
of North Carolina, with a squadron 
and troops, 191 ; commands part of 
the army at battle of Long Island, 
202 ; leads a British army, and crosses 
the Hudson River, 208 ; attacks and 
carries Fort Lee, ib. ; pursues the 
American army across New Jersey 
to Trenton, 209 ; qut-generalled by 
Washington, falls back upon New 
Brunswick, 220, 221 ; surprises Gen. 
Lincoln at Boundbrook, N. J., 222 ; 
defeats Lord Stirling, 225 ; defeats 
Gen. Sullivan at Brandywine, 228 ; 
takes the American fort at Red Bank 
on the Delaware, 229 ; at the battle 
of Monmouth, 261 ; commands part 
of the army of the South, and takes 
Georgetown, South Carolina, 307 ; 
Clinton returns to New York, and 
leaves Cornwallis to succeed him in 
command at the South, 307; joins 
Lord Rawdon, on the approach of 
the American army under Gen. 
Gates, and they engage the latter at 
Sanders's Creek, 308 ; orders a 
charge with fixed bayonets, and de- 
feats the Americans, with great 
slaughter, ib. ; sends Col. Ferguson 
with a body of loyalists to sweep the 
country to Virginia, 309 ; adopts 
rigorous measures to coerce the in- 
habitants to submit, ib. ; pushes on 
tt Salisbury, but, on the defeat of 
Ferguson, falls back, is taken sick, 
and the British troops under Raw- 
don retire to Camden, 310 ; informs 
Generals Phillips and Arnold, from 
Wilmington, N. C, that he is about 
marching to Virginia, 330; previous 
to the above, he is joined by Gen. 
Leslie with a reinforcement in South 
Carolina, 331 ; sends Tarleton to 
attack Morgan, and the former is 
defeated at the battle of the Cow- 
pens, 331 ; takes the field in person, 
and marches in pursuit of Morgan, 
332 ; follows the American army, 
commanded by Greene, to the bor- 
ders of Virginia, and gives up the 
pursuit, 333; meets Greene on the 
( return of the Americans into North 
Carolina, and engages hirn at Guil- 
ford court-house, 334; the victory 
claimed by both sides, and the British 
retire towards Wilmington — issues 
a Drochmation calling upon citizens 



Cornwallis, Lord — 

to join his standard, 334 ; marches 
from Wilmington northward, and 
joins the forces of Phillips and Ar- 
nold at Petersburg, Virginia, 340 ; 
operations in Virginia, 340, 341 ; en- 
camps at, and fortifies, Yorktown, 
341 ; force in Virginia under his 
command, ib. ; is besieged at York- 
town, by the combined American 
and French armies, 343 ; attempts 
to retreat, but a storm prevents, 
and he surrenders to the allied 
armies, 344 

Customs, Commissioners of, created by 
act of Parliament, 77 ; arrival of, in 
the Colonies, 79 ; their proceedings 
in .Boston, ib. ; opposed by the peo- 
ple, and flee, SO 

D. 

Danbnry, Conn., burnt by British troops 
under Gov. Tryon, 223 

D'Anville, Duke, sent to America with a 
fleet — his fleet dispersed — return to 
France, 30. 

Deane, Silas, American agent in France, 
216; his success there, ib. ; is ap- 
pointed commissioner, with Frank- 
lin and Arthur Lee, ib. ; recalled in 
consequence of charges against him, 
300 ; returns and pifblishes a defence 
of his conduct, ib. 

Declaration of Independence, mentioned 
by Patrick Henry in 1773, 133; for- 
mally adopted at Mecklenburg, N. 
Carolina, in May, 1775, 155; com- 
mittee of Congress appointed to pre- 
pare one, 195; adopted and signed 
by Congress, 196; received by the 
people with enthusiasm, ib.; read to 
the Continental Army, 199 

D'Estaing, Count, arrives with a French 
fleet on the American coast, 262 ; 
proceeds from the Chesapeake to 
Sandy Hook, and thence to Rhode 
Island, 262, 263 ; sails to attack the 
British fleet under Lord Howe, but a 
storm prevents an engagement, 263 ; 
refuses to co-operate with the Ame- . 
rican army in the siege of Newport, 
R. I., and sails to Boston, to repair, 
ib.; is censured by the Americans, 
264 ; defeats the English admiral 
Byron in the West Indies, and ar- 
rives on the coast of Georgia, 291 ; 
captures a squadron of four British 
ships, ib. ; lands his forces and as- 
sists Gen. Lincoln and the Ameri- 
cans in storming Savannah, ib.; they 
are repulsed, and the French retire 
on board of the fleet, 292 ; encoun- 
ters severe storms and returns to 
France, ib. ; his death, ib. 
De Grasse, Count, commands the French 
fleet in America, 342 ; informs 
Washington of his movements, ib. ; 
enters the Chesapeake, 343; assists 



498 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



De Grasse, Count — 

at the siege of Yorktown, 344 ; sails 
for the West Indies, 347 

De Kalb, Baron, commands a body of 
American troops, and is killed at the 
battle of Sanders's Creek, 308 

Dickinson, John, writes " Farmers' Let- 
ters," 78 ; draws up instructions to 
Pennsylvania delegates, 130 

Dieskau, Baron, his march against Fort 
Edward — his death, 37 

Dunmorc, Lord, governor of Virginia, 
his conduct excites the people 
against him, 177; his affair with 
Patrick Henry, ib. ; abdicates the 
Government, 178 ; attempts to re- 
gain his power, offers freedom to 
slaves, attacks and destroys Norfolk, 
ib. ; sails for the West Indies, and 
joins the main army, ib. 

Dwight, Timothy, D.D., of Connecticut, 
his early views in favor of independ- 
ence, 193; his prophetic views of 
the future progress of America, in 
1775, 194 



English Colonies, their independent 
character, rivalries between them, 
25; propositions for their union, 
their first union against the French, 
26 ; difficulties with other settle- 
ments, and with the Indians, 27 ; ne- 
glected by the home government, 30 ; 
their critical state, 34 ; against Nia- 
gara, its result, 3S ; against Indians 
at Kittaning, j9 ; against Louisburg, 
40 ; their condition, 49. 

Esopus, burnt by the British under Gen. 
Vaugh^n, 247 

Eichangi of Prisoners, general, in 17S0, 
325 ' 

Expedition, of the French along the 
Ohio and Mississippi, 31 ; against 
French settlements in Nova Scotia, 
under General Braddock against 
Fort du Quesne, 36 ; against Crown 
Point and Ticonderoga, 37 ; against 
Fort Frontenac, its capture by the 
English, against du Quesne, 41 ; 
against Quebec, against Ticonderoga, 
Crown Point, and Niagara, 42 

*F. 

Fairfield and Norwalk, burned by Go- 
vernor Tryon, 287 

Farmers' Letters, written by John Dick- 
inson, 78 

Finances, American, unfavorable condi- 
tion of, in 1779, 280 ; negotiations 
in Europe, ib. ; depreciation of Con- 
tinental money, ib. ; successful ope- 
rations to raise funds in Europe and 
America, in 1781, 329 

Flag, American, adopted, 196 

Fox, Charles James, opposes Boston port 
bill, 117 ; opposes Massachusetts 



Fox, Charles James ■ 

bill, 118 ; moves a censure of min- 
isters, 146 ; censures ministers for 
the mismanagement of American af- 
fairs and loss of Burgoyne's army, 
244 ; his sarcasms on ministers, 256 

France, Silas Deane sent by Congress to 
as American agent, 216 ; obtains 
important aid, ib. ; three commis- 
sioners appointed by Congress, ib. ; 
treaty of alliance and commerce with, 
negotiated, 24S ; aid received by the 
United States from, 249 ; happy ef- 
fects of the capture of Burgoyne on 
the French government, ib. ; effects 
of the treaty of alliance on public 
opinion in America, 250 ; war be- 
tween France and England, 256 ; 
treaty of alliance with, ratified by 
Congress, 258 ; sends a fleet of 
twelve sail of the line to America, 
262 ; concludes a treaty with Spain, 
290 ; doubtful effects of the alliance 
with, on American affairs, 299 ; aids 
the American cause with funds and 
troops, 312 ; fleet and army of, ar- 
rive in United States, 313 

Franklin, Doctor, member of the Alba- 
ny convention, his plan and its cha 
racter, 34 ; examination of, before 
British House of Commons, 50 ; ap- 
pointed agent to England by Penn- 
sylvania, 57 ; consulted by British 
ministers, 58 ; opposes the stamp 
act, 58, 60 ; his letter to Charles 
Thomson referred to, 60 ; invention 
of committees of correspondence in 
the Colonies attributed to, 104; 
sends to Massachusetts Assembly 
the letters of Hutchinson and Oli- 
ver, 105 ; presents petition of Mas- 
sachusetts Assembly for removal of 
Hutchinson and Oliver before the 
Privy Council, 106 ; dismissed from 
the office of Colonial Postmaster 
General, ib. ; his efforts to influence 
the people of England in favor of 
the Colonies, 138 ; procures petitions 
to Parliament from English people 
in favor of Colonies, 140 ; returns to 
America, 179 ; is elected a delegate 
to Congress from Pennsylvania, ib. ; 
appointed Postmaster General, ib. ; 
appointed one of the committee to 
confer with Lord Howe, 204 ; his 
conversations with Lord Howe 
and sister, 205 ; appointed commis- 
sioner to negotiate a treaty of peace, 
354 

Fraser, General, defeats the Americans 
at Hubbardton, 234 ; is killed at the 
battle of Stillwater, 239 

French, first settled in Canada, soon af- 
ter in Florida, claimed jurisdiction 
on the Ohio and Mississippi, built a 
chain of forts from Canada to Flori> 
da, bribed the Indians, 27 ; deter- 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



499 



French — 

mine to extend their American em- 
pire, alliance with the Indians, their 
active movements in Nova Scotia, 
30 ; claim the valleys of the Ohio 
and Mississippi, claim disputed by 
the English, erect forts south of 
Lake Erie, 31 ; deserted by their 
Indian allies at Fort du Quesne, 
flight down the Ohio, 41 ; abandon 
Ticonderoga, power destroyed west 
of Montreal, 42 ; piquet guard cap- 
tain captured, 44 ; attempt to reco- 
ver Quebec, ships destroyed by Col- 
vdle, Montreal the only possession 
left them in Canada, 46 ; influence 
over the Indians continued, 56 ; ne- 
gotiations and treaty with the Unit- 
ed States, 249 ; ship with munitions 
of war arrives in the United States, 
ib. ; fleet under C*unt D'Estaing ar- 
rives on the coast, 262 ; French and 
American officers disagree at Rhode 
Island, 264 ; dissatisfaction of the 
Americans with their French allies, 
ib. ; ambassador in England (De 
Noailles), his ironical letter to Lord 
North, 270 ; fleet and army under 
D'Estaing assist in the attack on Sa- 
vannah, 291 ; are repulsed and re- 
turn to France, 292 (see D'Estaing) ; 
alliance with the United States, 
doubtful effects of, 299 ; minister to 
the United States, M. Gerard, ar- 
rives, 262 ; succeeded by M. Lu- 
zerne, 299 ; French fleet and army 
in aid of America announced by La 
Fayette to be on the way, 312 ; fleet 
with army arrive in United States, 
313 ; army, second division of, des- 
tined for America, blockaded at 
Brest by an English fleet and non- 
arrival of, 313 ; Admiral Ternaydies 
at Newport, ib. ; army goes into 
winter quarters, 314 ; fleet sail to 
Virginia, are attacked by the British 
Admiral, and return to Newport, 
330 ; fleet under Count de Grasse 
sail from the West Indies for the 
Chesapeake, 342 ; army form a junc- 
tion on the Hudson river and march 
to Virginia, ib. ; fleet under De 
Grasse arrives in the Chesapeake 
and lands additional troops, 343 ; 
operations of the combined armies, 
ib. ; surrender of Yorktown, 344 ; 
fleet sail for the West Indies, and 
the army are cantoned at Williams- 
burgh, 347 ; return to France, 4S9 

French agent, a mysterious one in Ame- 
rica, 1775, 187. 

Fuller, Mr., opposes ministerial mea- 
sures respecting the Colonies, 116, 
119; moves for repeal of the tea 
duty, 119 ; deserts the ministerial 
side, and predicts ruinous results 
from Lord North's measures, ib. 



G. 

Gage, General, commands the British 
forces in America, 80 ; orders troops 
to Boston, ib. ; anecdote of, 90 ; suc- 
ceeds Hutchinson as Governor of 
Massachusetts, 121 ; dissolves Gene- 
ral Assembly, 124 ; denounces the 
League of patriots, 125 ; introduces 
troops into Boston, ib. ; fortifies 
Boston Neck, 127 ; sends troops to 
seize military stores at Concord, 150 ; 
Provincial Congress of Massachusetts 
declare him disqualified to act as 
Governor, 154 ; issues a proclamation 
offering pardon, &c, 167 ; directs 
operations at Battle of Bunker Hill, 
ib. ; orders the burning of Charles- 
town, 168 ; recalled and succeeded 
by Howe, 173 

Gaspee, British revenue schooner, burn- 
ed near Providence, R. I., 103 

Gates, Horatio, appointed Brigadier- 
General and Commander of the Ame- 
rican forces in Canada, 215; joins 
General Washington on the Dela- 
ware, 216 ; appointed to the com- 
mand of the northern army, 237 ; is 
joined by Generals Arnold and Lin- 
coln, 237, 23S ; his various operations- 
against Burgoyne, 237, 23S, 239 ; re- 
ceives offer of capitulation from Bur- 
goyne, and agrees to accept of a sur- 
render of his army — his delicacy 
and humanity towards the defeated 
troops, 243 ; receives the thanks of 
Congress for himself and army, and 
a gold medal presented to him b^ 
their order, 244 ; his Letter to Ge- 
neral Vaughan, 247 ; sends troops to 
reinforce General Putnam, ib. ; is 
concerned in a scheme to supersede 
Washington, 254 ; placed at the head 
of the Board of War, ib. ; appointed 
by Congress commander of the army 
at the South, 308 ; engages the Bri- 
tish army at Sanders's Creek, is de- 
feated with great slaughter, and re- 
treats to Charlotte, and thence to 
Hillsboro', N. C, 30S, 309; incurs 
reproaches, and a court of inquiry is 
appointed respecting him, 311 ; is 
superseded in command by General 
Greene, ib. 

Georgia falls .into the hands of the Bri- 
tish, 268 ' 

German troops employed by England, 
183 ; Debates in Parliament thereon, 
1S6 ; Emigrants in America, ib. 

Germantown, battle of, 229 

Gibbon (Historian), member of the House 
of Commons, 147 ; his remarks on 
American affairs, ib. 

Governors, the royal colonial — their ty- 
rannies, 29 ; their troubles with the 
people, and final expulsion or abduc- 
tion, 176 

Grafton, Duke of, head of the ministry, 



500 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Grafton, Duke of— 

83 ; urges conciliation with the colo- 
nies, 1S1 ; resigns his seat in the 
cabinet, and acts with the opposi- 
tion, ib. ; motion for conciliating the 
Colonies, 187. 

Greene, Nathaniel, appointed Brigadier- 
General by Congress, 167 ; at first 
commands at Long Island, but fall- 
ing sick, is there succeeded by Sul- 
livan, 202 ; commands a division of 
the army at the battle of Trenton, 
211 ; his gallantry at the battle of 
Brandywine, 225 ; at the battle of 
Monmouth, 261 ; commands part of 
the expedition to Rhode Island, 2G3 ; 
Washington appoints him to super- 
sede General Gates in the command 
of the Southern Army, 311; at- 
tacked by Knyphausen, and defeat- 
ed, in New Jersey, 313; presides at 
the Court-Martial in the case of 
Major Andre, 323 ; detaches General 
Morgan to check the British, 331 ; 
joins Morgan, and retreats before 
Cornwallis, 332 ; is reinforced at 
Guilford Court-house, and continues 
his retreat into Virginia, 333 ; re- 
ceives reinforcements and returns 
into North Carolina, 334; engages 
the British under Cornwallis at 
Guilford Court-house, ib. ; pursues 
Cornwallis towards Wilmington, 
334 ; is attacked by Lord Rawdon at 
Hobkirk's Hill, near Camden, 335 ; 
capture of several British forts, ib. ; 
besieges Fort Ninety-Six, but is 
compelled to raise the siege, and 
retreats across the Saluda River, 
ib. ; attacks the British at Eutaw 
Springs, and defeats them, 339 ; 
close of the campaign in South Caro- 
lina, 340 ; reinforced by a detach- 
ment under General St. Clair, 347 ; 
sends Wayne with a part of the army 
into Georgia, 352 

Grenville, George, premier, 54 ; pro- 
poses to tax the Colonies, 55 ; intro- 
duces the Stamp Act, 58 ; his views 
on taxation of the Colonies, 72 ; op- 
poses the measures against the Colo- 
nies in 1769, 84 ; opposes Lord 
North's proposal to retain the duties 
on Tea, 98 

Grey, General, detached by Sir Henry 
Clinton on a predatory expedition in 
New England, 263 ; his exploits on 
several of these expeditions, 264 

H. 

Hale, Nathan, his enterprise, capture, 
and death, 206 

Hancock, John, declines a British com- 
mission, 81 ; his sloop Liberty seiz- 
ed, 79 ; appointed President of Con- 
gress, 160 

Hayne, Colonel, taken prisoner by the 



Hayne, Colonel — 

British, tried, and executed at 
Charleston, S. C, 339 

Henry, Patrick, opposes the Stamp Act, 
60 ; resolutions and speech of, 60- 
63 ; his predictions respecting the 
contest with Great Britain and inde- 
pendence of the Colonies, 133 ; vigo- 
rous measures proposed by, 157 ; 
speech in Provincial Congress, ib. ; 
proscribed by the British Govern- 
ment, ib. ; originates the phrase 
"Liberty or Death," 157; his affair 
with Lord Dunmore, 178 

Herkimer, General, his defeat and death, 
236 

Hessian troops employed by England, 
183; capture of, at Trenton, 212; 
cruelty and outrages of, 221 ; re- 
pulsed at Red Bank, 229 

Holland takes sides with the Americans 
against Great Britain, in 1780, 325; 
Henry Laurens appointed minister 
to, ib. ; Great Britain declares vval 
against, 326 

Howe, Robert, General, commands a 
body of American troops in an ex- 
pedition against Florida, 267 ; sick- 
ness of his troops and their retreat, 
268 ; defeated at Savannah (after a 
desperate contest), by the British 
under Campbell and Baird, ib. ; com- 
mands the post at West Point, 316. 

Howe, General Sir William, arrives at 
Boston with an army, 167 ; commands 
British troops at Battle of Bunker 
Hill, 16S ; succeeds Gen. Gage in 
, command, 173 ; proposes to evacuate 
Boston, 189; evacuates Boston and 
sails with the troops for Halifax, 
190 ; arrives off Sandy Hook with an 
army, 199 ; takes possession of Staten 
Island, ib. ; lands on Long Island, 
201 ; defeats the Americans, 203 ; 
is knighted by the King, ib. ; pre- 
pares to drive the American army 
from the city of New York, 205 ; 
takes possession of the city, 206 ; or- 
ganizes a temporary government, 
and marches in pursuit of the Ame- 
ricans, 207 ; his indecision as to the 
course to adopt, 209 ; yields to the 
counsel of Lord Cornwallis, ib. ; is- 
sues a joint proclamation with his 
brother, Lord Howe, offering pardon 
to Americans, 210 ; his plans for the 
campaign of 1777, 222 ; various op- 
erations of, ib. ; moves from New 
York to New Brunswick, 22 1 ; man- 
oeuvres and stratagem of, 225 ; retires 
to Staten Island and evacuates New 
Jersey, 225 ; embarks his troops for 
Philadelphia, via the Chesapeake, 
ib. ; leaves his troops at Elk River, 
marches, and defeats the Americans 
on the Brandywine, 227; enters 
Philadelphia, 229; pushes forward 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



501 



Howe, General Sir William — 

to Germantown, where he is attack- 
ed by Washington and defeats him, 
229 ; after another action at White - 
marsh, unimportant in its result, he 
goes into winter-quarters at Phila- 
delphia, 230; recalled by his own 
request, 25S ; fete given him by his 
officers at Philadelphia on taking 
leave, called the Mischianza, 259 ; 
departs for England, and is succeed- 
ed by Sir H. Clinton, ib. 
Howe, Admiral Lord, arrives at Staten 
Island, in the capacity of British 
Commissioner, 200 ; his amiable 
character, 199 ; his circular letters 
to Americans, 200 ; letters to Gen- 
eral Washington, 201 ; his second at- 
tempt at pacification, 204; meets 
Committee of Congress, ib. ; result 
of the conference, 205 ; his conver- 
sation with Dr. F'ranklin, ib. ; sails 
from the Delaware to Sandy Hook, 
and transports Sir H. Clinton's troops 
to New York, 262 ; sails to Newport, 
R. I., where he meets the French 
fleet under Count D'Estaing, 263 ; 
both fleets put to sea, but a storm pre- 
vents an engagement, ib. ; is joined 
by Admiral Byron's Fleet, 264 ; Ad- 
miral Gambier takes the command, 
and Lord Howe returns to England, 
ib. 
Hutchinson, Lieutenant Governor of 
Massachusetts, succeeds Bernard as 
Governor, 85 ; at first refuses but af- 
terwards consents to the removal of 
British troops from Boston, 96 ; his 
letters to the British government 
sent by Dr. Franklin to Massachu- 
setts Assembly, 105; acknowledges 
the letters to be genuine but confi- 
dential, ib. ; Assembly petitions for 
his removal, 106 ; refuses to remove 
Chief Justice Oliver, 121 ; retires, 
and is succeeded by General Ga«-e 
121 



Independence, first dawning of, in Ame- 
rica, 54; ideas of, in the Colonies 
suggested by measures of the British 
Government 86 ; gradual approaches 
to, 130 ; first idea of, uncertain as to 
time, 130; declaration of, mentioned 
by Patrick Henry, in 1773, 133 ; De- ' 
claration of, at Mecklenburg, N. C , 
in May, 1775, 155; ideas of, among 
the people of America, 193; Dr. 
Dwight's early views in favor of, 
193 ; action by the Continental Con- 
gress in favor of, 195; committee 
appointed to prepare Declaration, 
ib. ; adoption and signing of the 
Declaration, 196 ; acknowledgment 
of advocated in the British Parlia- 
ment (in 1778), 256 



Indians, the war of the' Five Nations 
against the French aided by the 
English, 27; their outrages on the 
frontiers, their butcheries at Fort 
Wm. Henry, 39 ; hostilities with the 
British Colonies, 56 ; under French 
influence, ib. ; Six Nations of, join 
the British, ib.; Southern, instigated 
against Americans by British agents, 
216 ; various tribes of, join General 
Burgoyne's army, 233; murder of 
Miss McCrea, 235 ; allies of General 
Burgoyne desert^the service, 238; 
barbarities of, on Western frontiers, 
264 ; massacre of the people of Wyo- 
ming, 26, 266 ; their settlements laid 
waste by the Americans, 266 ; attack 
and massacre of Cherry Valley, 267 ; 
depredations on the Southern fron- 
tier, ib. ; on the Susquehanna, chas- 
tised by General Sullivan and their 
villages destroyed, 292, 293 



Jay, John, draws up letter of Instructions 
to the Colonial agents in England, 
13S ; appointed Minister to Spain, 
299 ; commissioner to negotiate for 
peace, 354 
Jefferson, Thomas, a member of the Vir- 
ginia Legislature and a leader of the 
patriots, 100 ; member of Continen- 
tal Congress and one of a committee 
to draft a Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, 195 ; same drawn by him 
adopted, 196 ; his narrow escape 
from capture by the British, while 
Governor of Virginia, 329 ; appoint- 
ed Commissioner to Europe to nego- 
tiate for peace, 354 
Johnson, Sir John, with a large body of 
Indians defeats General Herkimer, 
236 
Johfison, Sir William, leads an expedi- 
tion against Crownpoint and Ticon- 
deroga, 37 ; erects Fort Wm. Hen- 
ry, 38 
Jones, Paul, exploits of, 269 ; commands 
a squadron fitted out by the Ameri- 
can Commissioners in France, 293 ; 
attacks a British convoy, 294 ; cap- 
tures two British ships after a des- 
perate battle, 295, 296 ; receives the 
thanks of Congress and a gold medal, 
also the order of- merit from the 
French king, 296 

K. 
King George III. ; his character and his 
counsellors, 39 ; recommends taxa- 
tion of the Colonies, 58 ; his speech 
on American affairs (1760), 72; his 
message on Boston tea-riot, 113 ; his 
speech declaring the Colonies in a 
state of rebellion, 139; effect of the 
speech in the Colonies, 150 ; his 
statue destroyed in New York, 196 ; 



502 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



King George III. — 

his speech on the alliance between 
France and America, 273 

Knyphausen, General, left by Sir Henry 
Clinton in command of the British 
forces at New York, 292 ; detaches 
a large body of troops under General 
Mathews, on an incursion into New 
Jersey, 313 ; joins Mathews with Sir 
Henry Clinton, and additional troops, 
ib. ; attacks and defeats General 
Greene, burns Springfield, and re- 
turns to New York, ib. 

Kosciusko (Polish General) appointed 
Chief Engineer of the Continental 
army, 235; accompanies the Northern 
army at Saratoga, ib. ; distinguished 
in the Southern campaign, 336 

L. 

Ladies, American, patriotism of, 90 ; in 
camp at Valley Forge, 253 ; daugh- 
ters of loyalists at the Mischianza, 
Philadelphia, 259 ; 
Of Fairfield, Connecticut, outrages on, 
by Governor Tryon, 2S7 ; patriotism 
and exertions of, 312 

La Fayette, Marquis, offers his services 
to Congress ; is accepted and ap- 
pointed Major-General in the Conti- 
nental army, 227 ; meets Washington 
in Philadelphia, and becomes a 
member of his military family, 227 ; 
is wounded at the battle of Brandy- 
wine, 22S , his fidelity to Washing- 
ton, 254 ; commands a detachment 
of the army in Pennsylvania, 260 ; 
his skilful manoeuvre when attacked, 
ib. ; leads the advance troops at the 
battle of Monmouth, 261 ; commands 
a detachment sent to Rhode Island, 
263; challenges Earl Carlisle, one 
of the British Commissioners, for 
insulting language used towards 
France, 264 ; makes a visit to France, 
275 ; success of his mission, and 
return to America, 312 ; receives 
the thanks of Congress, ib. ; des- 
patched by Washington to Virginia, 
330 ; his skilful manoeuvres against 
the British, 340, 341 

Laurens, Henry, President of Congress; 
publication, in Rivington's Royal 
Gazette, of a letter alleged to have 
been written by him, but supposed 
to have been forged, and intercepted 
by the enemy, 301 ; effects of, on the 
public mind, ib. ; appointed Minister 
to Holland, and captured by the 
British, 325 ; released on bail, and 
afterwards exchanged for General 
Burgoyne, 348 

Laurens, John, appointed Special Com- 
missioner to France ; obtains finan- 
cial aid for the United States, 329 ; 
is killed in an action in South Caro- 
lina, 352 



Lee, Charles, General, military opera- 
tions of, at New York, 191 ; repairs 
to South Carolina, and defends 
Charlestown, 192 ; commands part 
of the army at White Plains, 209 ; 
ordered to New Jersey, 210 ; is sur- 
prised and taken prisoner, ib. ; Bri- 
tish refuse to exchange him, 22G ; 
exchanged for General Prescott, and 
commands a detachment of the 
army, 260 ; his conduct at the battle 
of Monmouth, 261 ; quarrels with 
Washington, and addresses him two 
offensive letters, ib. ; arrested, tried, 
and suspended from command, ib. ; 
leaves the service, and dies at Phi- 
ladelphia, ib. 

Lee, Major (afterwards Colonel), cap- 
tures fort at Paulus Hook, 290 ; ex- 
ploit and stratagem with Colonel 
Pyle in North Carolina, 334 ; joins 
General Marion and captures several 
forts, 335 

Letter of St. Pierre ; its tone, 33 ; 

Of Lord Hillsborough to the Colo- 
nies, 86 

Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer, 78 ; 
Of Hutchinson and Oliver, exposed by 

Franklin, 105 ; 
Of instructions to colonial agents in 

England, from Congress, 13S ; 
Of Admiral Howe, 200, 201 

Letter of General Putnam to Governor 
Tryon, relative to a spy taken by the 
Americans, 226 

Lexington, Battle of, 151 ; effects of, on 
the people of the Colonies, 153, 154, 
155 

Liberty, Sons of, societies so-called form- 
ed in the Colonies, 68 

Liberty, Sloop, seized at Boston, 79 ; 
Poles erected in the Colonies, 100 

" Liberty or Death," patriotic phrase 
originated with Patrick Henry, 158 

Lincoln, General, surprised by Lord 
Cornwallis, at Boundbrook, New 
Jersey, and retreats, 222 ; joins Ge- 
neral Gates at Saratoga, 23S ; is in- 
cluded in the vote of thanks by 
Congress, 244 ; takes command of 
the army at the South, 2S1 ; encamps 
on the Savannah River, 282; strength 
of his army in April, 1779, 283 ; 
marches to attack Savannah, ib. ; ap- 
prised of the march of General Pre- 
vost, with the British army, he 
moves toward Charleston, attacks a 
division at Stono Ferry, and is re- 
pulsed, 284 ; prepares for defence 
of Charleston, 304; refuses to sur- 
render to the British fleet and army, 
and they open a destructive fire upon 
the town, 305 ; the British prepare 
for an assault, and the American 
General and army surrender prison- 
ers of war, 306 ; exchanged for Ge- 
neral Phillips, 325 



ANALYTICAL INDEY". 



503 



London, City of, takes sides with the 
Colonies, 149 ; petitions the king in 
their favor, ib. ; rebuked by the 
king, ib. 

Long Island, landing of British troops 
at, 201 ; battle of, 202 ; defeat of the 
Americans, 203 ; retreat of the Con- 
tinental army, ib. ; destruction of 
British vessels and stores at Sag 
Harbor, by Colonel Meigs, 224 ; Ma- 
jor Tallmadge's expedition against 
Fort George, 324 

Loudon, Lord, appointed British Com- 
mander-in-Chief in America, 38 ; re- 
called, 41 

Louisburg, its cost — English expedition 
against it — flight of the French from 
it — its surrender, 29 ; English at- 
tempt to capture it, 39 

Lovell's expedition to the Penobscot 
defeated by the British under Sir 
George Collier, 290 

Loyalists, see Tories 

M. 

McCrea,Miss, murder of, by Indians, 235. 

Marion, General, a partisan leader, 
wounded at the siege of Charleston, 
310 ; performs signal services in the 
campaigns at the South, ib. ; joined 
by Lee ; they capture Fort Watson, 
Fort Motto, and Fort Granby, 335 ; 
Georgetown, 336 ; exploits and an- 
ecdotes of, ib. 

Massachusetts, Colonial Assembly of, in- 
vite a congress at New York in 
1765, 64 ; take a bold stand against 
acts of Parliament respecting taxa- 
tion, 78 ; assembly dissolved by the 
Governor, 79 ; provincial convention 
formed, 81 ; people and Legislature 
declared guilty of treasonable acts, 
by Parliament, 83 ; charter altered 
by act of Parliament, 117 ; action of 
General Assembly, 123, 124; secret 
conference of Members, 123 ; re- 
commend a general Congress, 124 ; 
appoint delegates and are dissolved 
by the Governor, ib. ; " Solemn 
League and Covenant" adopted, ib. ; 
denounced by General Gage, 125 ; 
state of public feeling in 1774, 126 ; 
people prepare for war, 116; pro- 
vincial Congress formed, 128 ; their 
resolutions, ib. ; Assembly resolve 
themselves into a provincial Con- 
gress, 136 ; enrol militia as minute 
men, 137 ; resolve to purchase muni- 
tions of war, 150 ; address the Eng- 
lish people on the battle of Lex- 
ington, 153 ; organize an army, ib. ; 
issue paper money, ib. 

Mecklenburg, Declaration of Independ- 
ence at, May, 1775, 155. 

Meigs, Colonel, gallant expedition of, to 
Long Island, 224 ; Congress presents 
him with a sword, ib. 



Mercer, Genera^ killed at the battle 
of Princeton, 220. 

Ministers from France to the United 
States, 262, 299. 

Ministers to Great Britain and Spai7i 
appointed by Congress, 299 ; to 
Holland, 325. 

Minute men enrolled in New England, 
137. 

Mischianza, entertainment given to 
General Howe and Admiral Howe, 
at Philadelphia, on taking leave, 
description of, 259. 

Monmouth, battle of, 261. 

Montcalm, commander of the French 
force in Canada — crosses Lake Erie 
with 5000 men — captures fort On- 
tario at Oswego — returns to Cana- 
da — collects his force at Ticondero- 
ga — captures fort William Henry, 
39 ; defends Ticonderoga — siege 
raised, 41 ; prepares to attack the 
British, 44 ; his death at Quebec, 45. 

Montgomery, General, commands expe- 
dition to Canada, 173; captures fort 
Chambly, 174 ; St. John's, ib. ; Mon- 
treal, ib. ; joins Arnold and attacks 
Quebec, 176 ; is killed, and his army 
defeated, ib. 

Montreal, defended by De Callieres, 28 ; 
surrendered to the English, 46 ; 
taken by the Americans under Mont- 
gomery, 174 

Morgan, General, defeats the British at 
the Cowpens, 331 ; receives a medal 
from Congress, 332 

Morris, Robert, treasurer of the United 
States — his important financial ope- 
rations and patriotic services, 329. 

Morristown, New Jersey, Continental 
troops encamp at, 221, 296 

Mutiny of the Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey troops, in 1781, quelled by 
Washington and Wayne, 328, 329 

N. 
Naval battle, on Lake Champlain, 215 
Navy, American, commencement of, 
189; condition and operations of, 
268, 269 ; action between the Ameri- 
can ship Randolph and British ship 
Yarmouth, and destruction of the 
former, 269 ; operations of Paul 
Jones, ib. ; notice of various opera- 
tions, 349 
Navy, British, strength of, in 1778, 26S 
New Haven (Conn.), entered by the 
British under Tryon, 287 ; after va- 
rious outrages the enemy retire, 
without burning the town, ib. 
New Jersey, patriotic proceedings of the 
people, 155 ; overrun by British 
troops, 208 ; by the American army, 
221 ; evacuated by the British, 225 
New London (Conn.), attack of, intend- 
ed by Sir Henry Clinton, prevented 
by a storm, 263 ; again threatened 



504 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



New London,— ™ 

by Governor Tryon, but saved by his 
recall, 287 ; burned by Arnold, 342 

Newport (R. I), siege of, by the Ame- 
ricans, 203 ; abandonment of the 
siege and retreat of General Sulli- 
van, 263 

New York, committee of the Assembly 
of, propose a Colonial Congress in 
1765, 64 ; violent opposition to "the 
Stamp Act by the people, mobs and 
riots, 67, 70 ; Assembly refuse to 
enforce Mutiny Act, 76 ; prohibited 
by Act of Parliament from passing 
laws, until obedient to the Mutiny 
Act, 77 ; people of, send remon- 
strance to Parliament against taxa- 
tion, 84; violate non-importation 
agreements, 99 ; tea not permitted 
to be landed, 111 ; Assembly refuse 
to appoint delegates to the Congress 
of 1774, 130; delegates appointed 
by town-meetings, ib. ; refuses to 
adopt the resolution of Congress re- 
specting commerce, 135 ; makes 
common cause with the Colonies 
after the battle of Lexington, 154; 
many of the people royalists, 178 ; 
Tryon, royal Governor, ib. ; Riving- 
ton's (tory) press destroyed, 179; 
Continental army under Washington 
arrive at, 191 ; statue of George III. 
destroyed, 196 ; evacuated by the 
American army, 206 ; British army 
takes possession, ib. ; great fire de- 
stroys about one-third of city, 207 

Non-Importation Agreements, adopted, 
68, 78, 82 ; effects of, in England, S6 

North Carolina, early movements in 
against British authority, 101 ; or- 
ganization of the Regulators, ib. ; 
action of the Regulators with British 
troops in 1771, 102 ; movements of 
the people in 1775, 155; Provincial 
Congress convened, ib. ; Committees 
of Safety appointed, ib. ; Independ- 
ence declared at Mecklenburg, ib ; 
military operations in, 191 ; cam- 
paign in 1780, 81, 331 to 340 

North, Lord, proposes to reject the New 
York remonstrance, 84; moves in 
Parliament for repeal of duties in 
part, retaining the tax on tea, 98 ; 
proposes to make Governors and 
Judges of the Colonies independent 
of the people, 104 ; offers a resolu- 
tion in Parliament permitting the 
export of tea to America free of 
export duty, 106 ; other measures 
proposed by him, 115, 117, 118; 
proposes further coercive measures, 
146, 147, 182 ; introduces a concilia- 
tory plan, 14S ; makes concessions in 
favor of America, 256 ; moves an 
Address to the King on the treaty 
between' France and America, 273 ; 
resigns after the battle of Yorktown, 
and other disasters in America, 353 



Norwalk (Conn.), burned by Governor 
Tryon, 287 

O. 

Ohio Company, its character, grant from 
the crown, French jealousy of it, 
appeal to Virginia for protection, 31 : 
send around men to erect a fort, se- 
cure aid from Virginia and Carolina, 
their fort destroyed, 33 

Oliver, Andrew, stamp-master at Boston, 
attacked by a mob, and burnt in effi- 
gy, 66 ; resigns his office, 67 ; his 
letters exposed by Doctor Franklin, 
105 ; Assembly of Massachusetts pe- 
tition for his removal, as Lieutenant 
Governor, 106 

Oliver, Peter, Chief Justice of Massa- 
chusetts (brother of Andrew), re- 
plies to the queries of the Assembly, 
who demand his removal from office, 
121 ; the Governor refuses to re- 
move him, and the Assembly resolve 
to impeach the Chief Justice, ib. 

Otis, James, member of the Congress of 
1765, 66 ; one of a committee to 
wait on Governor Bernard, 80 

P. 

Paine, Thomas, Secretary of Congress 
for Foreign Affairs, 300 : makes 
charges against Silas Deane, ib. • 
cited to appear at the bar of Con- 
gress, ib. , resigns iris cffice, ib. 

Paoli, battle of, 229 

Paper money issued by Massachusetts 
Provincial Congress, 153 ; by Conti- 
nental Congress, 163, 2S0; depreci- 
ation of, 280 

Parker, Admiral, arrives off the coast of 
Carolina, 191 ; his unsuccessful at- 
tack on the fort near Charleston, 
192 ; takes Rhode Island, 212 

Party names applied in the Colonies, 
136 ; spirit in the Continental Con- 
gress, 299 

Paulus' Hook, fort at, captured by 
Americans under Major Lee of Vir- 
ginia, 290 

Peace, of 1697, between England and 
France, 28 ; of Utrecht and its 
terms, thirty years between Eng- 
land and France, 29 ; treaty of Aix- 
la-Chapelle, 30; treaty of Paris, 46; 
people of England anxious for, in 
1782, 353 ; preliminary negotiations 
for a general peace in Europe and 
America, 354; treaty of, signed and 
ratified, 355 

Peekskill, capture of military stores at, 
222 

Penn, William, heirs of, protest against 
the Canada boundary bill, 120 

Pennsylvania Convention appoints dele- 
gates to Congress with instructions 
(1774), 129 

Penobscot, failure of General LovelFa 
expedition to, 290 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



505 



Philadelphia, citizens of, oppose Stamp 
Act, 67, 6S ; Tea not permitted to be 
landed, 111 ; British army under 
Gen. Howe take possession of, 229 ; 
conduct of British troops at, 259, 
260 ; departure of Gen. Howe, and 
fete given him by his officers, 259 ; 
Sir Henry Clinton takes command, 
ib. : British army evacuate the city, 
260 ; American aimy under General 
Arnold take possession, ib. 
Phillips, Gen., taken prisoner at the 
surrender of Burgoyne, exchanged 
for Gen. Lincoln, 325 ; sent by Clin- 
ton to join Arnold in Virginia, 330 ; 
their joint operations, ib. ; his death 
at Petersburg, 340 
Pitt, William, made Prime Minister, 
40 ; contemplates the conquest of 
Canada — assigns an active part to 
Wolfe, 41 ; his course on the Stamp 
act, 58 ; takes the part of the Ame- 
ricans, 72 ; replies to Grenville, 73 ; 
proposes a repeal of the Stamp act, 
ib. ; created Earl of Chatham, 76, 
curious cabinet formed by him, ib. ; 
(See Chatham) 
Predatory expeditions of the British, 

246, 247, 263, 285, 286 
Prescott, Colonel, commands Americans 

at Bunker's Hill, 167 
Prescott, Major- General, of the British 
army, captured at Rhode Island, by 
Col. Barton, 226 ; exchanged for 
General Lee, 260 
Prevost, General, commands the British 
army at the South, 282 ; his various 
operations, 2S2, 283 ; re-organizes 
the government of Georgia, ib. ; at- 
tacks and defeats General Moultrie, 
ib. ; plans an attack upon Charles- 
ton, 284 ; summons the town to sur- 
render, ib. ; withdraws his troops, 
and moves towards Savannah, ib. ; 
successfully defends Savannah against 
an attack by the Americans and 
French, 291 
Princeton, battle of, 220 
Privateers, American, enterprise and 
umbers of, 180 : successful exploits 
, 180, 269 
' rivateers, British, authorized against 
Americans by " Letters of Marque," 
issued by act of Parliament, 222 
Providence, R. I., people of, destroy the 
British revenue-schooner Gaspee, 
103 
Provincial Convention formed in Massa- 
chusetts, SI 
Congress formed in same colony, 128 
Congresses and assemblies of the colo- 
nies approve of the proceedings of 
Congress of 1774, 135 
Congress of Massachusetts enrol mili- 
tia, 137 ; invite other colonies to join 
them, ib. 
Congresses and assemblies formed 
thoughout the colonies, 137 

33 



Pulaski, Count, distinguished in the bat- 
tle of Brandy wine, and made a briga- 
dier-general, 228 ; acts with General 
Moultrie at the South, 283, 284 ; 
killed while charging a British force 
at the attack on Savannah, 292 ; con- 
gress erect a monument to his memo- 
ry at Savannah, 292 

Putnam, Israel, commands a corps of 
Connecticut troops, 153 ; appointed 
major-general in the Continental 
army, 164 ; one of the commanders 
at Bunker's Hill, 168; at the battle 
of Long Island, 201 ; at the retreat 
from New York, 206 ; .takes com- 
mand at Philadelphia, 210; stationed 
on the highlands of Hudson River, 
226 ; a spy (Lieut. Palmer, of the 
British army) taken in his camp, and 
executed by his order, ib.; his letter 
to Gov. Tryon on the subject, ib.; 
commands troops at Danbury, Conn., 
2S9 ; his daring feat at West Green- 
wich, ib. 

Q- 

Quebec, expedition against, 1629 — cap- 
tured — its restoration to France — 
second English expedition against it, 
27; defended by Frontenac — third 
English expedition against it — its 
failure, 28; strongly fortified, 42; 
surrendered to the English, 45 ; 
change in laws for the government 
of, 120; attacked by Montgomery 
and Arnold, 175 ; successfully de- 
fended by the garrison, 176 

Quincy, Josiah, his remarks at the Bos- 
ton town-meeting, 1773, 108 



Randolph, American Frigate (Captain 
Biddle), engages the British ship 
Yarmouth, and is destroyed, 269 

Rawdon, Lord, commands a division of 
the British army at the South, 308 ; 
is joined by Cornwallis, and they 
defeat Gen. Gates at Sanders's Creek, 
ib.; engages Gen. Greene, near Cam- 
den, 335 ; burns Camden, and re- 
treats to the South, ib. ; raises the 
siege of Ninety-Six, 336 ; retires to 
Eutaw Springs, resigns his command 
to Col. Stewart, and returns to Eng- 
land, 339 

Red Bank (on the Delaware) Fort at- 
tacked by the Hessians, who are re- 
pulsed by the Americans, 229 ; Lord 
Cornwallis marches against it, and 
the Americans retreat, ib. 

Refugees, see Tories 

Regulators, origin and organization of, 
in North Carolina, 101 ; action with 
Tryon's toops, 1771, 102 

Reidesel, Baroness, her account of the 
surrender of Gen. Burgoyne, 243 

Revolt of part of the Continental army 
quelled, 328, 329 



506 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Revolution in the Colonies assumes a 
distinct form in 1774, 137; further 
movements in 1775, 156 ; conclusion 
of, 367 

Revolutionary Writers, 368 

Rhode Island, people of, burn the British 
revenue-schooner Gaspee, 103 ; Bri- 
tish take possession of the islands of 
Rhode Island, Conanicut, and Pru- 
dence, 212 ; siege of Newport by the 
Americans, 263 ; battle of, ib. ; eva- 
cuated by the British, 291 

Ridgefield, battle of, 222 

Rivington, James (King's Printer), his 
press destroyed by Americans under 
Capt. Sears, 179 ; his press re-esta- 
blished, 301 ; publishes a letter al- 
leged to have been written by Mr. 
Laurens, President of Congress, 
charging members with corruption, 
301 

Rochambeau, Count de, commander of 
the French army, arrives at New- 
port, 313 ; meets Washington in con- 
ference at Hartford, 314; they pro- 
ceed in company to Virginia, 342 ; 
siege of Yorktown and surrender of 
Cornwallis, 343, 344 ; the Count re- 
ceives a special vote of thanks from 
Congress, 344; returns to France, 
489 

Rockingham, Marquis of, premier, 71 ; 
cabinet dissolved, 76 ; premier again 
in 1782, 353 ; dies, and is succeeded 
by Shelburne, 354 

Roebuck, Dr., employed by British 
ministers to counteract Dr. Franklin, 
139 ; procures petitions from the 
people in favor of ministers, 140 

Royalists, see Tories 

S. 

Sag Harbor, L.I., destruction of British 
vessels and stores at, by Colonel 
Meigs, 224 

St. Leger, Colonel, sends an expedition 
against Fort Schuyler on the Mo- 
hawk, 234 ; his defeat and final re- 
treat, 236, 237 

Savannah, battle of, and defeat of the 
Americans, 268 ; is taken by the 
British troops under Colonel Camp- 
bell, 268; attacked by the French 
and Americans, and successfully de- 
fended by General Prevost, 291 

Schuyler, General, commands the north- 
ern army, 215 ; commands the forces 
to oppose General Burgoyne, 235 ; 
evacuates Fort Edward, and retreats 
towards the Hudson, ib. ; his army 
increased, ib. ; is succeeded in the 
chief command by General Gates, 
237 ; his humanity and kind treat- 
ment of the British prisoners, 243 

Schuyler, Fort, siege of, by Colonei St. 
Leger, 236; gallant defence of, by 
Colonel Gansevoort, and retreat of 
St. Leger, 23'' 



Sears, Captain Isaac, destroys Riving- 
ton's printing press at New York, 
179 ; seizes Rev. Mr. Seabury and 
other clergymen of the Church of 
England, ib. 

Slaves, great numbers captured by the 
British, 285, 341 

Smith, Adam, endeavors to counteract 
Doctor Franklin's movements in 
England, 139 

Sons of Liberty, origin of Societies of, 
68 ; name given to Patriots by Colo- 
nel Barre, 95 

South Carolina, effect of the battle of 
Lexington and acts of Parliament on 
the people, 155; vigorous measures 
adopted by, ib. ; Provincial Congress 
convoked, ib. ; Bills of credit emit- 
ted, ib. ; campaign in 1780-81, 331 
to 340. See Charleston, Clinton, 
Cornwallis, and Greene. 

Spain joins France against England, 
290 ; her pecuniary aid to the U. S., 
329 

Springfield, JV. J, battle at, 313 ; burned 
by the British, ib. 

Stamp Act, proposed by Grenville, 55 ; 
opposed by Colonel Barre, 59; pas- 
sage of, 60 ; reception of, in America, 
ib. ; mobs and riots on account of, 
66, 67; discussion on, in Parliament, 
72, 73, 74 ; repealed 74 ; rejoicings 
on account of repeal in England and 
America, ib. 

Stark, General, defeats the British under 
Colonel Baum, at Bennington, 236 

Steuben, Baron, arrives in the U. S., and 
tenders his services to Congress, 249 ; 
succeeds General Conway, as In- 
spector-General, and introduces a 
system of tactics and discipline into 
the army, 254 

Stirling, General Lord, commands 
part of the American Troops on Long 
Island, 202; gallantry of his com- 
mand in that battle, ib ; is defeated 
and taken prisoner, 203 ; at the bat- 
tle of Trenton, 211; is defeated by 
Cornwallis, near Middlebrook, 225 ; 
joins Putnam on the Hudson river, 
226 ; attempts an attack upon Staten 
Island, but is compelled to retreat, 
311 

Stony Point, Fort at, taken by the Bri- 
tish, 2S6; stormed and recaptured by 
the Americans under Wayne, 288 ; 
abandoned by Wayne, and again gar- 
risoned by the British, 289 ; evacu- 
ated by the British, 291 

Sullivan, John, appointed Brigadier- 
General, 167; commands a division 
of the army on Long Island, 202 ; is 
defeated and taken prisoner at the 
battle of L. I., 202, 203 ; is parolled, 
and sent by Lord Howe with a mes- 
sage to Congress, 204 ; is exchanged, 
and succeeds General Charles Lee in 
•jommand, 210 ; at the battle of Tren 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



507 



Sullivan, John — 

ton, 211; is ordered to cross the Hud- 
son, and encamp near Peekskill, 226 ; 
commands the right wing of the 
army at the battle of Brandywine, 
228 ; is attacked by Cornwallis, and 
compelled to retreat, ib. ; his expe- 
dition against the British troops at 
Rhode Island, 263 ; battle of Rhode 
Island, ib. ; his admirable retreat, 
ib. ; commands an expedition against 
the hostile Indians on the Susque- 
hannah, 292 ; burns their villages.and 
compels them to retreat to the wil- 
derness, 293 

Sumter, Colonel, a partisan leader at the 
South, attacks the British regulars 
and tories at Rocky Mount, and is 
repulsed, 307 ; defeats them at Hang- 
ing Rock, ib. ; after a successful at- 
tack on the Wateree, he is defeated 
by Colonel Tarleton, 309 ; created 
Brigadier-General, collects a band of 
volunteers, and again harasses the 
British army, 310; defeats Major 
Wemys at Broad River, and Colonel 
Tarleton at Blackstock, 311 



Tallmage, Major, his gallant enter- 
prise against Fort George ; on Long 
Island, 324 

Tarleton, Col., defeats and cuts to 
pieces a body of Americans in Caro- 
lina, 307 ; charges and disperses 
American troops with great slaugh- 
ter, at Sanders's Creek, 308 ; his ope- 
rations checked by Marion, 310 ; 
defeated by Morgan at the Cowpens, 
pursued by Colonel W. Washington, 
331 

Taxes, on the colonies, proposed by 
Grenville, 55 ; right of imposing 
asserted by colonies, 57 ; recommen- 
ded by George III., 58; Stamp act 
passed, 60 ; repealed, 74; new law 
proposed and passed, 77 ; resisted by 
the colonies, 78 

Tea, Duties on, imposed by Parliament, 
77 ; retained in 1769, 86 ; exports of, 
to the Colonies from England, 86 ; 
importers of, unpopular, 91 ; parlia- 
ment refuse to repeal duty on, 99 ; 
export duty on shipments to Ame- 
rica, removed, 107 ; arrival of cargoes 
at Boston, ib. ; people of Boston 
resolve that it shall not be landed, 
ib. ; destruction of, in Boston har- 
Dor, 110; not permitted to be sold 
elsewhere, 111 

Ttconderoga, strengthened by the 
French, 38 ; attacked by Abercrom- 
bie, 40 ; expedition against, planned, 
159 ; taken by Allen and Arnold, 
ib. ; invested and taken by General 
Burgoyne, 234 ; attacked by the 
Americans, who are repulsed, 23S 



Townshend, Charles, supports the Stamp 
act, 59 ; Chancellor of Exchequer in 
the Earl of Chatham's Cabinet, 76 ; 
proposes a new scheme for taxing 
the colonies, which is carried in 
Parliament, 77 ; death of, 83 

Tories, or royalists, conduct of, 199 ; 
their loyalty checked by the conduct 
of British and Hessian troops, 221 ; 
a detachment of, under Gov. Tryon, 
destroy Continental village West- 
chester, with barracks and military 
stores, 246 ; operations of (with 
Indian allies) in the valley of Wyo- 
ming, 265; also at Cherry Valley, 
267 ; depredations on the Southern 
frontier, ib. ; great numbers of, join 
the British army at the South, 282 ; 
increasing number of, in 17S0 at the 
South, 304 

Tory, appellation of, to the colonial roy- 
alists, 136, origin of the term, ib.; 
families leave Boston with Gen. 
Howe, 190 

Treason of Arnold, 314 

Treaty, of neutrality with the Indians, 
41 ; of Paris, its conditions, 46; of 
alliance between France and Ame- 
rica, 248 ; between France and 
Spain, 290 ; of peace, between U. S. 
and Great Britain, signed and rati- 
fied, 355 

Trenton, battle of, 211, 212; reception 
of Washington at, 364 

Troops, British, land near Quebec, 42; 
cross the St. Lawrence, their critical 
situation, 43 ; glide down the St. 
Lawrence, ascend the heights of 
Abraham, 44 ; British arrive in 
Boston, 80 ; additional, sent from 
England, 147, 167, 183 ; German or 
Hessians employed, 183 ; British 
evacuate Boston, 190 ; arrive off 
Sandy Hook, 199 ; land on Long 
Island, 202 ; enter city of New 
York, 206 ; {see Army) 

Tryon, Governor of JY. Carolina, his 
tyrannical character and practices, 
101 ; leads his troops against the 
Regulators, 102 ; his cruelty towards 
prisoners, ib. 

Tryon, Governor of New York, opera- 
tions of, 178; his plan to take 
Washington prisoner, 199 ; takes 
refuge in the ship Asia, 222 ; com- 
mands an expedition to Connecticut, 
ib, ; burns Danbury, 223 ; attacked 
by Americans under Wooster and 
Arnold, and retreats, ib. ; destroys 
Continental village, 246 ; his second 
predatory expedition to Connecticut, 
286 ; burns Fairfield and Norwalk, 
287 

U. 
United States, name adopted by Coa* 
Kress, 196 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



V. 

Valley Forge, encampment of Ame- 
ricans at, 230 ; sufferings of the army 
at, 251,252; number encamped at, 
251 ; march of the army from, 259, 
260 

Vergennes, Count de, Prime minister of 
France, negotiates a treaty of alliance 
with the United States, 249 ; his 
talents and character, ib. 

Verplank's Point, Fort La Fayette at, 
captured by the British, 2S6 ; unsuc- 
cessfully attacked by Wayne, 289 ; 
evacuated by the British, 291 

Virginia, opposes the stamp act, 60, 71 ; 
sympathizes with Massachusetts, 
100; House of Burgesses petition the 
King, ib. ; recommend committees 
of correspondence, adopting resolu- 
tions of Dabney Carr, 104 ; effect of 
the Boston port bill on public mind 
in, 122 ; fast day appointed by Bur- 
gesses, ib. ; Assembly dissolved by 
Lord Dunmore, 123 ; members or- 
ganize an association, ib. ; recom- 
mend a general Congress, ib. ; Pro- 
vincial Congress convened, 157; re- 
commends a volunteer corps, ib. 
speech of Patrick Henry, ib. ; British 
expedition against, 258 

W. 

Walpole, Horace, indifferent on Ameri- 
can affairs, 59. 

War, declared between France and Eng- 
land, 27; declared by England 
against France — Queen Anne's, 28 ; 
between England and France — its 
origin, 29 ; formally declared be- 
tween England and France — vigorous 
preparations, 38 ; end of the " seven 
years," 48 ; preparations for, in the 
Colonies in 1774, 12G ; commences 
in earnest, 153 ; between France and 
England, 256 ; between Spain and 
England, 290 ; between Holland and 
England, 326 ; conclusion, and ge- 
neral peace, 354. 

Warren, Commodore, joins the expe- 
dition against Louisburg, 29. 

Warren, Joseph, appointed Major Ge- 
neral, 168 ; killed at battle of Bunker 
Hill, 170. 

Washington, George, appointed a com- 
missioner to confer with the French ; 
his youth and character ; expedition 
to the French forts ; his reception 
by M. de St. Pierre; bearer of a 
letter to the Governor of Virginia ; 
his return to Williamsburgh, 32 ; his 
interview with French officers; 
made Colonel ; placed in command 
of troops ; leads them against the 
French and Indians ; events and re- 
sults of his expedition, 33 ; enters 
the army under Braddock, 35; his 
bravery and preservation at Brad- 



Washingtofi, George — 

dock's defeat, 36; leaves (he service, 
37; approves of the non-importation 
agreement, 68 ; member of the Vir- 
ginia House of Burgesses, 82 ; pre- 
sents non-importation resolutions, 
ib. ; appointed Commander-in-Chief 
of the Continental army, 164 ; his 
speech on the occasion, ib. ; copy of 
his commission, ib. ; joins the con- 
tinental army, 170 ; introduces dis- 
cipline and organization, ib. ; ap- 
peals to Congress on the state of the 
army, 180 ; reorganizes the army, 
ib. ; accepts Gen. Howe's terms of 
proposal to quit Boston, 189 ; enters 
Boston with the Continental army, 
190 ; marches the army to New York, 
191 ; plot to capture him discovered 
and broken up, 199 ; his reception of 
the letters of Lord Howe, 201 ; his 
army defeated on Long Island ; re- 
treats to New York, 203 ; withdraws 
the troops from the city, 206 ; directs 
various movements of the army, 
207 ; retires to the heights near 
White Plains, 208 ; his army de- 
feated at White Plains, ib. ; crosses 
the Hudson river with his army, and 
retreats through New Jersey before 
the British army, ib. ; crosses the 
Delaware with the troops to Penn- 
sylvania, 209 ; his firmness under de- 
feat and disaster, 210; appointed 
Military Dictator by Congress, 211 ; 
crosses the Delaware and captures a 
body of Hessians at Trenton, 211, 
212 ; successful stratagem of, and 
battle of Princeton, 220 ; retreats to 
Morristown, where he establishes 
his head-quarters, 221; overruns 
New Jersey with his troops, ib. ; in- 
oculates his army for the small pox, 
222 ; breaks up his encampment at 
Morristown and marches to Middle- 
brook, near the British head-quar- 
ters, at New Brunswick, 224 ; avoids 
an action with Gen. Howe, 225 ; is 
left in quiet possession of New Jer- 
sey, ib. ; is perplexed about the des- 
tination of the British army and 
fleet, 225, 226 ; marches to German- 
town, near Philadelphia, ib. ; con- 
fers with Congress, 227 ; meets La 
Fayette, who becomes a member of 
his military family, ib. ; marches to 
the Brandywine, and meets the 
British army, ib. ; is defeated, and 
retreats to Philadelphia, 228 ; re- 
solves to risk another battle, but a 
storm prevents, 229 ; abandons Phi- 
ladelphia to the British army, ib ; 
attacks the British camp at German- 
town, and is defeated, after a severe 
action, 229, 230 ; is attacked at 
Whitemarsh by Gen. Howe (who, 
after a few skirmishes, falls back 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



509 



Washington, George— 

upon Philadelphia), 230 ; goes into 
winter quarters at Valley Forge, ib. ; 
his letter to Congress relative to the 
sufferings of the army, 252 ; is join- 
ed by Mrs. Washington at Valley 
Forge, 253 ; conspiracy formed 
against him, and an attempt made to 
supersede him, ib. ; forged letters 
attributed to him, 254 ; his firmness 
and prudence on the occasion, 255 ; 
retains the confidence of the people, 
ib. ; sends La Fayette with a de- 
tachment to watch the movements 
of the enemy, 260 ; marches the 
army from Valley Forge (on receiv- 
ing intelligence of the evacuation of 
Philadelphia by the British), and 
crosses to New Jersey, ib. ; deter- 
mines to pursue the British army 
and attack them, ib. ; engages them 
at Monmouth Court House, 2G1 ; 
reprimands Gen. Lee for his con- 
duct in that battle, ib. ; passes the 
night upon the battle field, intending 
to renew the contest in the morning, 
but finds the British had retreated, 
261, 262; receives the thanks of 
Congress, 262; crosses the Hudson 
to White Plains, and in November 
goes into winter-quarters at Middle- 
brook, New Jersey, ib. ; sends troops 
against the hostile Indians on the 
Susquehannah, 266 ; opposes the 
scheme for invading Canada, 275 ; 
warns Congress against the designs 
of France, ib. ; confers with Con- 
gress on the subject, and induces 
them to abandon the scheme, 276 ; 
his anxiety respecting dissensions in 
Congress, ib. ; prepares for the next 
campaign, and sends General Lin- 
coln to take command at the south, 
277 ; confers with Congress on plans 
for the campaign of 1779, 279 ; 
sends General Wayne to attack 
Stony Point, 2SS; orders Major 
Lee to attempt the capture of the 
British fort at Paulus's Hook, 290 ; 
goes into winter-quarters at Morris- 
town, 296 ; sends a reinforcement to 
General Lincoln at the south, ib.; 
demands and obtains a supply of 
provisions for his army from the 
people of New Jersey, 299 ; sends a 
large force to the Carolinas, 308 ; 
appoints General Greene to super- 
sede General Gates in command of 
the southern army, 311 ; expresses 
to Congress great confidence in Ge- 
neral Greene, ib. ; receives commis- 
sions of Lieutenant General and 
Vice Admiral from Louis XVI., 
312 ; sends a detachment from Mor- 
ristown, under General Greene, to 
meet the British army in New Jer- 
sey, 313; meditates an attack upon 



Washington George — 

New York, ib. ; meets Rochambeau 
(French General), at Hartford, Con- 
necticut, 314 ; Andre's design for 
capturing him and his staff, 319; 
discovery of the treason of Arnold, 
323 ; conduct of Washington on that 
occasion, ib. ; appeals to Congress 
for more troops and longer enlist- 
ments, 325; failure of his attempt 
to capture Arnold in Virginia, 330 ; 
holds a conference with the French 
officers in Connecticut, and forms a 
junction of the American and French 
armies on the Hudson, 341 ; pre- 
pares to attack New York, ib. ; ad- 
vances to a position near the city, 
but changes his plan, and the com- 
bined armies march for Virginia, 
342 ; precedes the army with De 
Rochambeau, and arrives at La 
Fayette's head-quarters at Williams- 
burg, ib. ; receives the surrender of 
Cornvvallis and the British army at 
Yorktown, 344 ; endeavors, in vain, 
to induce Count De Grasse to aid in 
the reduction of Charleston, 347 ; 
adopts vigilant measures for the 
campaign of 17S2; establishes his 
head-quarters at Newburg, New 
York, 352 ; his humane conduct in 
the case of Captain Asgill, ib. ; dis- 
content of the army after the con- 
clusion of peace, and a monarchy 
proposed to Washington, 356 ; his 
reply and rebuke, ib. ; his prudence 
and influence induce the soldiers to 
disband quietly, 357; his farewell 
address to the army, 35S ; resigns to 
Congress his commission as Com- 
mander in Chief, 359 ; elected a 
delegate to the Convention to form a 
Constitution for the United States, 
and chosen President of that body, 
363; elected President of the United 
States, 364; his progress to New 
York, ib. ; his inauguration, 367. 

Washington, Colonel W., commands a 
body of cavalry under General Mor- 
gan, 331 ; defeats and pursues Colo- 
nel Tarleton at the battle of the 
Cowpens, 331 ; is presented with a 
medal by Congress, 332. 

Wayne, General, his gallantry at the 
battle of Brandywine, 22S ; is sur- 
prised and defeated at Paoli, 229 ; 
commands a division of the army on 
marching from Valley Forge, 260 ; 
leads the attack at the battle of 
Monmouth, 261; storms and cap- 
tures Stony Point fort, 2S8 ; receives 
the thanks of Congress and a medal, 
289 ; letter to him from Doctor 
Rush, ib. ; joins La Fayette in Vir- 
ginia, 340; his skilful attack on the 
British, and retreat, 341 ; is sent by 
General Greene into Georgia, and 



510 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Wayne, General — 

defeats the British in several actions, 
352. 

West Point, fortress at, strength and im- 
portance of, 316; General Arnold 
appointed to the command of, ib. ; 
negotiations of Arnold with Sir 
Henry Clinton to surrender to the 
British, ib. ; failure of the scheme, 
320. 

Wliig, party name of, applied to patriots, 
136 ; origin of the name, ib. 

Wilkes, John, takes part in favor of the 
Colonies, 147. 

Wolfe, General, at the siege of Louis- 
burg, 40; his campaign on the St. 
Lawrence, 42 ; takes possession of 
Point Levi; erects batteries; be- 
sieges Quebec and resolves on an as- 
sault ; his desponding letter to Pitt, 



Wolfe, General — 

43; effect of his letter; determines 
to scale the Heights of Abraham, 
44 ; his death at Quebec, 45. 

Wooster, General, commands the Ame- 
rican troops in Fairfield county, 
Connecticut, 223 ; is killed at the 
battle of Ridgefield, ib. 

Wyoming Valley, massacre of the peo- 
ple of, by Tories and Indians, 265. 



Yorktown, Cornwallis and the British 
army encamp at, and fortify, 341 ; 
invested by the combined American 
and French armies, 343 ; surrender 
of Cornwallis, 344; Congress re- 
solves to erect a marble column at, 
ib. 



Lit 



